A Thousand Paper Cranes
by Unyielding Wish
Summary: SeeU has loved mythical legends since she was little. She was always very fragile. Falling ill with a lung infection that may turn out deadly just when she's about to visit her brother, will an ancient legend he tells her give her more hope? SeeUxSeeWoo
1. I: First Signs

_I: First Signs_

The sunset this evening was smeared with the perfect amounts of gray, beige, yellow, and orange, as if its colours had been poured into a blender and whipped to perfection and then splashed across the heavens. The sun, a fiery red ball of hope, slowly sank as the colors of the sky darkened. Lights in the city were slowly flickering on, and soon the towering skyscrapers' silhouettes blocked out all but a few pale golden rays of the sun. The low hum of traffic resumed, and cars raced, one after another, on the highway.

SeeU never liked it when it was dark. Having been almost tricked away by a stranger when she was five, she never trusted the city, either, with its great amount of thieves and overcrowded population. The hustle and bustle of the people always seemed too hurried for her, too bewildering. She preferred it tranquil and easy to understand like the town in southern South Korea where she'd grown up in. Even though it was only six o'clock in the evening, it was November, and already SeeU could make out the first traces of the stars in the sky as the taxi she rode in whizzed by. The city of Daegu was huge, and although not as huge and important as Seoul, it was big enough to make her feel small and lost. She could only hope that the driver knew where he was going.

She was headed to the Daegu International Airport. She'd take a trip to China first as a sort of bridge trip, and boarding Air China she'd get Tokyo-Haneda airport, which was in Japan, her destination. She'd gone on the computer to painstakingly trace its exact whereabouts, and yet this old man who was handling his taxi so boldly claimed to know where it was.

SeeU's brother had been studying the arts in Japan for...oh, four years, to say the least. He sent home hundreds of letters and photographs, but even that was not enough. SeeU wanted to see this country for herself, see her brother again. They had planned to meet at the Haneda Airport, but SeeU could easily get lost and was not sure if she could get where SeeWoo would be.

SeeU did some quick mathematical problems in her head. From Daegu to Beijing would approximately take eight hours. From Beijing to Tokyo would take about three hours and thirty minutes. It'd about to almost twelve hours, and seeing as it was six p.m. right now, and it'd take almost another hour to get to the airport, but yet another thirty minutes to spare once she got there, she'd probably arrive in Tokyo, Japan at around seven in the morning if she didn't choose to explore Beijing, China - wait, no. She would have three hours in Beijing until the flight to Tokyo, so she'd get there at ten.

She glanced down at her flight schedule. She'd printed out a flight schedule for Air China, too, from the Internet. Once she landed in China, SeeU would have three hours' time before she had to get to the airport for the flight to Japan. But then, who goes about exploring in the midnight?

SeeU sighed and leaned against the taxi seat. It was cushiony and smelled of freshly polished leather. There was a little Kindle-like device on the back of the passenger seat, which she could use to play games on. But not now. All this thinking was starting to wear her out, and SeeU was in desperate need of a long nap. How she could sleep on this bumpy highway was beyond her, with the roar of traffic next to her ear as the driver scrolled down the windows to let out some of the smoke in the car - he had been smoking - but just as the driver swerved sharply SeeU found her eyelids drooping.

* * *

SeeU was awakened unceremoniously at a sudden stop. Her eyes flew open as she jerked forward, and as her nose came within inches of smashing into the passenger seat in front of her, SeeU thanked the heavens for her seat belt.

A wave of carsickness crashed over SeeU, but she gulped it down. She'd have to find somewhere else to puke. Why was she feeling so nauseous, though? She'd been on longer car rides. It must be the skimpy sleep she'd gotten last night, as she stayed up late, kept up by the excitement that she would be visiting SeeWoo in Japan. She blamed her own eagerness. It would wait, after all. She would have five weeks to spend time with him, about a month.

"Ma'am, this is your stop," the driver said, rather ungraciously. He scratched at the stubble on his chin and held out his hand.

SeeU meekly slid some change in his hand, along with a tip. Then she stepped out of the taxi with her suitcase, into the cold night air, and walked to the imposing building in front of her. She reopened the map of Daegu International Airport for what seemed like the thousandth time, and traced along the path she'd marked with sparkly gold ink. She'd only drawn that path a fortnight before, but she'd already worn it so that most of the sparkle in the ink had rubbed off. SeeU gulped again, but this time from excitement and fear. She looked up, again, at the airport.

Even though it was nighttime, cars were still parked along the entrance. Slowly SeeU walked inside. The lighting was strange: dim and glaring at the same time. The walls, polished floor, glass windows, staircases, escalators, elevators...they were all illuminated a pale, liquidy golden yellow. **(A/N: I'd never been inside there before, and I didn't find any useful images of its inside, but I'm drawing on my own experiences of airports to write what it might have looked inside.)** It would have been a warm welcome to anyone who was familiar with the Daegu National Airport and traveling, but for someone like SeeU, it was all ghastly and unfamiliar. She didn't walk like she normally did: she crept, looking around. A woman's voice announced the flights and their numbers, whether they were ready to fly or whether they were just unpacking or warning that they were about to take off. SeeU reached into her suitcase and quickly, with fumbling fingers, brought out a book. Hiding behind it in an attempt to look like she was reading, SeeU glanced around. The airport didn't seem as threatening as it was before, but still...

It was cold. SeeU wished she brought along a coat, but all of her coats were packed neatly in her suitcase, and she didn't want to go through the process of unzipping it and taking one out.

Soon, though, she got used to the unfamiliar airport, and reopened her map. SeeU glanced around for any guidance, and seeing as all the people rushed past her, she simply found out where she was herself and traced the path again. Showing her passport to the security guards, telling them that all the luggage she needed and had was in her hands, going through the security scanner, and the rest of it...it all passed by in a blur. It wasn't too long of a walk until she got to the rows of seats in the airport, where SeeU would wait until the airplane was ready to fly.

* * *

SeeU chose a seat next a friendly-looking girl who was maybe a few years older than her, with bluish-brown hair in two long ponytails on either side of her head and wide emerald eyes. She was engrossed in a book written in Chinese, but when SeeU sat down she looked up.

"Luo Tianyi," she said, extending a hand with a smile.

SeeU considered it for a moment before shaking it. "I'm SeeU." She wondered why Tianyi was giving out her name to a stranger that she didn't even know.

"You're headed for China, too?" Tianyi asked. This girl knew how to create conversation. A straightforward one.

"Actually, Japan," SeeU said. "I'm going to see my brother. It's just that Daegu City was the closest place nearby that had an airport, but the airlines don't include Japan, so I have to go to China first if I want to get to Japan."

"I went to here to finish my education in the career of music," Tianyi explained brightly. "I liked Kpop. But I'm done, so now I'm going back to China."

Kind of like SeeU's brother, except he went to Japan to study the architecture.

"Well, I..." Before SeeU had time enough to wedge in another word or two, another wave of sickness came over her. She definitely needed somewhere to, simply put, go. Did she just notice the cramps in her stomach, her trembling legs? And yet...SeeU glanced up at the board and all the words scrolling across it. There were only fifteen minutes until they boarded the plane.

"Are you okay?" Luo Tianyi placed a gentle hand on SeeU's clammy shoulder. A headache flared in SeeU's temples.

SeeU shook her head, then quickly changed her head's rhythmic movement to a nod. The headache surged forward. Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead. What was going on? She couldn't become sick right now, when there was only twelve hours until she'd see her brother!

"SeeU, you're really sick."

"I know that," SeeU snapped involuntarily. She tended to have an easily upset temper when she was sick.

_"You may begin boarding Flight-1017,"_ the woman's voice said over the loudspeakers.

SeeU stumbled to her feet. Luo Tianyi began to help her, but SeeU shook her head and pushed her away, fumbling as she refolded her map and stuck it in her pocket. She swayed unsteadily as she made her way through the narrow walkway, into the airplane.

It was then that the first puzzle piece of her illness had set itself on the puzzle board.

* * *

**Okay, _that_ was seriously random. I don't know where it came from, but it suddenly came into my mind that I should make a story on paper cranes. So I did, and took a week to write this one. The "Flight-1017" thing just popped into my head. Again, since I've never been there, I don't really know what they name their flights, but I thought about the flight names of the airplanes I knew about, and came up with that.**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	2. II: China, and then to Japan

_II: China, then to Japan_

It was two in the morning when SeeU arrived in China. A gray mist had descended over everything, and peering outside the plane's windows, SeeU could see the thick, soft snow that had formed a light, fluffy blanket over the soil beneath. Thankfully, the snowfall had ceased long enough for the plane to land. It rolled onto the runway, gracefully, without so much as a bump or two. Still, SeeU's mind raced ahead, her practical self taking over, wondering how, just _how_, she forgot to check Beijing's temperatures.

SeeU could almost feel the breath of the chilly, snowy weather. Or maybe she was just cold. She recalled her sudden attack of nausea, and gulped. This would not be fun. Nobody who had an attack like that should be wandering around in the snow, being cold.

It suddenly occurred to her that she didn't need to exit the airport. All she needed was to get her luggage, which wasn't too much, as she managed to stick it up in the compartments overhead, and go around the Beijing Capital International Airport, exploring all the little restaurants in the place to amuse herself. Of course, she needed to get her passport out, go through all the security stuff again, change some of her money into renminbi and some of her money into Japanese yen, but that wouldn't take too long. SeeU reached deep into the pocket of her blouse, and was reassured by the hard, leathery thing she touched that her passport was still there.

* * *

"Basically," SeeU explained to her brother on the long-distance calling system in the pay phone booth, "I'm kind of scared of airports, so can you please wait for me in the waiting area?"

"_SeeU." _SeeWoo sounded faintly amused, and irritated at the same time. "I don't think I'm allowed to be there."

"Then where are you allowed to be?"

"I'll be waiting for you right outside. There are signs, SeeU. You'll do _fine_. You can - you _can_ read Japanese, can't you?" His tone took on a worried note. SeeU was almost tempted to say that she couldn't, but thought better of lying to her brother. When she confirmed, he sounded more relieved. "I have a car, okay? Well, actually, I rented one from Galaco. I don't think you can miss it. It's a Honda, one of those vans, and Galaco painted it light yellow with orange, red, and blue down the back. With your eye for detail, I'm sure you can find it in no time."

SeeU bit her cuticles. "What if I come out of the other side of the airport?"

"That's not really my problem, is it? Besides, I don't think you're stupid. You can figure out which side to go by asking around for directions and -" as SeeU made a little protesting noise, SeeWoo sighed. "SeeU, stop being paranoid. You're _eighteen_. Nobody goes out to kidnap eighteen-year-old women."

"Seventeen," SeeU insisted. "I turn eighteen next month on December 16." **(A/N: Yes, I know that she was actually first released October 21, but that was in South Korea and she's supposed to be in Japan for most of the story, so I used the date for her release in Japan.)**

"Fine, seventeen-year-old girls. I can bet you that about ninety-nine in a hundred people of the crowd around you when you get to Japan aren't hostile people. You have maps all around you, too."

This didn't make SeeU feel any better. She wasn't used to traveling alone, especially in such an eerie place.

"Anyway, I'll come with Mayu. Mayu looks a lot like you, so you'll be able to pick her out of the crowd in no time flat. I'll even text you with a picture of her if you want me to."

"I don't have my cell phone with me," SeeU said. Another headache was coming on, and it was not because of this dizzying conversation.

"Well, just remember that she looks a lot like - SeeU? _SeeU?_" -

_Click_

SeeU pressed the pay phone back into its cradle, rubbing her temples. She wasn't annoyed, but her head just hurt. SeeU glanced around a place to sit down, and her eye fell onto the glowing pink and orange sign of one of those shops where you buy drinks nearby. She didn't take the time to decipher what the characters meant, but as if in a trance she walked in.

There were rows of polished tables. They almost looked sticky to the touch, having been wiped and rewiped so well. The cream surface of the round tables and the pink-and-orange booths lining up on each side of the room, SeeU guessed, was to make the place look festive, but it only tired her eyes, seeing as she was sick. In the front of the room stood a mahogany counter with a cash register sitting on it. An elegantly sculpted glass vase, with an orchid in it, stood beside the register. Two porcelain vases with what apparently seemed to be bamboo growing in it were set on each side of the room, right in front of the counter. SeeU saw a glowing neon menu hanging down from the ceiling and a soda machine behind the counter, but didn't see any employees.

Might as well. She made her way to the nearest table and sunk into the plushy pink seat, burying her head in her arms and closing her eyes.

It felt kind of nice to be in this position. SeeU contemplated what to say to her brother later. He'd be pissed, of course, that she just hung up on him, without any warning. Things to say ran in her head in different languages, replaying themselves again and again, until they became simply meaningless strings of words to her.

An itchiness, a weird pressing feeling, rose into her throat. She was tempted to cough but didn't.

_If I could just fall asleep now..._

Unfortunately, this enticing thought was interrupted when someone tapped her shoulder. "Miss?" this person said in a language that was defined to SeeU as Mandarin Chinese.

SeeU looked up tiredly. A fuzzy, blurry blob in front of her slowly took shape to be a uniformed waitress. The waitress had tight, dark pink curls (evidently dyed) and was wearing something like a maid uniform. There was a bright, fixed smile on her face, though it seemed to be a little forced now that SeeU was taking so long to answer. In one hand, she held a menu that was balanced precariously on her palm, and the other hand was perched on her hip. A nametag on her uniform read "Tetou," or maybe it was Teto.

"Yo, wassup, ma'am," SeeU said, forgetting for a moment who she was talking to. Just when the word "ma'am" left her mouth, SeeU was suddenly aware of two things:

1) "Yo wassup ma'am" is probably not the best way to greet a waitress.

2) SeeU was talking in a language other than Mandarin Chinese (she was talking in Korean) and perhaps Teto didn't understand her.

These two things were valuable things to know, especially in the airport. For a moment, SeeU put herself in Teto's place: some weirdo who showed up in the place she was working in, and then taking a long time to answer her question, and when she did, she answered her question in a different language. The aftereffects were kind of humorous, but SeeU managed to keep a straight face.

"Ma'am, would you like a menu?" Teto asked.

"Okay." SeeU took the menu from Teto and flipped through it. Teto stayed right next to SeeU, to her surprise. She took a seat across from her, in the orange seat.

"Pneumonia has been dominating these countries lately," Teto sighed. "It's so easy to catch around these places." She fixed a long gaze on SeeU, who felt distinctly uncomfortable as she thumbed through the pages and pages of drinks she could choose from. "Have you gotten the shots yet?"

SeeU shook her head, and Teto gave a long, low whistle through her teeth.

"As someone who works in the airport, it's been required of me. So, where you heading? Going to visit a friend or family member? What province?"

"I'm going to Japan," SeeU answered. Her eye landed on the mango smoothie. "I'm just coming here because the Daegu Airport doesn't go to Japan."

"Oh," Teto said. "You know, you could have gone to Jeju and then Japan. The airplanes in Daegu goes to Jeju International Airport, but the planes in Jeju go to the Narita International Airport instead of the Haneda Airport, which I guess you're heading. I think it's an easier route, much less hassle, less distance. But then, everyone to their own. Are you going to do any sightseeing around here?"

"I haven't the time."

"_Right,_" Teto said, with a glance at the clock. "It's...four o'clock in the morning. Chinese time. I guess you can't go exploring at this hour. When are you leaving?"

"Five-thirty."

"You'll get there at nine, then."

"Ten, actually," SeeU said. "Japanese time."

"To the heck with it. So...are you ready with your order yet?"

SeeU reread the choices. There were so many drinks that she thought, it would be certainly impossible. Some of them she had not even heard of: watermelon smoothies, avocado smoothies...who would drink that? "I'll take the mango smoothie," she said.

"With tapioca pearls?"

"Plain."

Teto nodded and left. "It'll be ready in ten minutes," she said, leaving SeeU to ponder her thoughts.

* * *

Teto set the mango smoothie down on SeeU's table. It probably wasn't a good idea for SeeU to drink something cold when she's in the middle of a sickness she didn't recognize, so she took a small sip and kept it flowing on her tongue for a few moments, warming it, before swallowing it. The taste wasn't bad, but wasn't what she'd expected: it actually seemed that the person who had made the smoothie actually put the mangoes in a blender rather than dump a whole bunch of sugar in the drink and add artificial mango flavoring. As a sugar fanatic, SeeU would have preferred the latter, but it was nice to drink something that was healthy for once.

"So...four-ten," Teto said. "You have an hour and twenty minutes. You usually get there fifteen minutes before the airplane is ready to fly. That makes it an hour and five minutes."

"I hate it when people calculate time. I mean, I do it all the time, but it kind of gives me a headache." This wasn't entirely true, but SeeU shook away a dull, fuzzy pain in her stomach. First her head, now her stomach? Not entertaining. She took a gulp of the cold drink, and warmed it again before letting it flow toward her stomach.

"Fine then." Teto sighed, letting her head rest in her hand. Her other hand drummed a rhythm on the plastic table. "It really is boring, working the night shift...but it's almost over. Geez, you never find anyone in this place at this hour."

* * *

A wave of giddiness washed over SeeU. Her random attacks of the illness had disappeared, and she was on her way - _finally_ - to SeeWoo. Gazing out the plane's window, she watched as a few clouds flew past. The gray mist over Beijing had disappeared by the time the plane lifted off the ground. Only a few hours and some two thousand kilometers stood between her and her brother.

Her feelings over the illness now seemed ridiculous. What was that compared to seeing the greatest city of Japan for herself, and hugging her brother for the first time four years?

SeeU could see, in her mind's eye, Tokyo. The highways snaking across its flat terrain, the tall skyscrapers, the lights, everything. It couldn't be that much different from Daegu or Seoul or Beijing. Only now, unlike the apprehensive anxiety she felt before, SeeU felt as if her world was opening up.

It was paving the road for adventure, blossoming, showing its beautiful fruit beneath.

It was an exuberant feeling to be held.

_Well, now,_ SeeU thought, _it's time to get some sleep._

* * *

**Thanks to these people for reviewing last time: ownitlikeaboss, Troubled Windchimes, Ten-Faced, and yiseunggi. :D I'm glad you all liked it!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	3. III: Just Now

_III: Just Now_

Now SeeU was in the Tokyo-Haneda airport. It was even more crowded than the two airports SeeU had been in before. People milled about in a crazy frenzy, pressed tightly to her. She could only take baby steps forward, inching her way through the crowd, dragging her suitcase with her. SeeU was good at sighting details, yes, but how will she pick out Mayu in this crazy place? If SeeWoo was right, Mayu would be blonde, but there were so many other people she could see in this airport that were blonde as well.

Just ahead, in the most condensed place she'd been in yet, SeeU sighted the double glass doors that led to the outside. _Front side of the airport...I hope?_

Her pace became more rushed. Pushing someone aside, elbowing another, she kept her gaze fixed on a blonde man with a white-blonde girl standing near him, near the double doors, both looking around.

Without thinking, SeeU flung herself - and the suitcase - at the man and threw her arms, loaded with her stuff, around his neck. They flew backwards, and both of them crashed into the wall, but SeeU didn't care. SeeWoo was as cuddly and easy to hug as he ever was. She was suddenly tempted to pull at his hair, ears, cheeks, shirt, pants...any way that she could be able to enjoy her moment of omg-SeeWoo-is-still-a-little-boy longer.

Thankfully, SeeU resisted against that. "Oh, SeeWoo, you big jerk," SeeU mumbled into his shirt in Korean.

"The love is returned, little sister," SeeWoo answered, patting her, changing the language to Japanese.

The girl next to him - Mayu? - offered SeeU a smile. "Your plane came a little early for us - or maybe we were late. There was terrible traffic on the streets."

There still was. Cars could only move about a meter forward each time the traffic lights changed. Parked at the curb, SeeU could see a pale yellow car with the multicolored stripes running down it. "That's your car?"

"Mmhmm." Mayu folded her arms over her chest, suddenly in a worse mood than she was before. SeeU looked over at SeeWoo, but SeeWoo just shrugged in a way that said, _Not my problem._ "It's _Galaco's_ car, more accurately," Mayu snipped. "She's a colleague of SeeWoo, too. Come on, let's go," as if she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

SeeWoo was dragged to the doors by Mayu, and SeeU tagged along. As they made their way there, SeeWoo turned around, and mouthed something along the lines of, _Love triangle._

* * *

SeeWoo's apartment was on the fifteenth floor of the building he lived in. It was about as big as two rooms. In one of the rooms, there were two mattresses spread out on the floor - "that's yours and that's mine" - and in the second room there was the kitchen. A telephone sat on the counter, and a small freezer at the far right of the room. In the left corner of the kitchen, away from the cooking place, utensils, cupboards, and anything that was used to make or store food, and near the table in the middle of the room, there was some sort of shower curtain that divided the room into two unequal parts. SeeWoo ducked inside the shower curtain and showed SeeU the toilet, the washtub, and a foldable, easy-access counter with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a comb scattered haphazardly on it.

"What about the faucet?" SeeU asked.

"In the kitchen," SeeWoo said, reverting back to Korean. Opening the flap in the curtains, and they stepped out. The sink was across the room, next to the stove. "I know it's kind of inconvenient, but since I have to take up a lot of part-time jobs to afford to pay my tuition, I can't really find any place bigger than this and still be able to pay the mortgage and everything. Now, SeeU, do you want to sleep or something?"

"I can help you make lunch if you like, it's eleven already."

"SeeU, I normally eat at one in the afternoon. It's okay."

"But I slept on the plane."

"What plane?" SeeWoo asked.

"The plane from Beijing to Tokyo," SeeU answered.

"That's like only four hours. Did you sleep at all on the plane from Daegu?"

"Well, no," SeeU admitted. SeeWoo sighed.

"Come on, get some rest."

The bedroom had a large, long glass-paned window on the side that was facing the street. Cars honked and roared below. SeeWoo drew the curtains across it, and they were left in semidarkness. There was a lamp on a bedside table next to the mattress, and SeeWoo had apparently quickly stacked books of various thickness and largeness on the other side of the room. These books, having been stacked heedless of size or scope, were leaning in perilous, lopsided towers to any side imaginable. In the far side of the room, there was a brown bag ("it's what I keep my stuff in," SeeWoo explained). There was a tiny clock up on the shelf, which was leaning against the wall. Some family portraits were laid on the shelf. It had a sort of at-home feel.

SeeU awkwardly drew the covers close to her. They were warm, but she didn't want to go asleep right then in front of SeeWoo.

"You can read them," SeeWoo said, pointing to the books. "I mean, they're not much; they're about architecture and such, but I think I've got a copy of _Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl_ in there, along with _The Book of Legends_." To prove his point, he bent down and tossed books aside before getting the two desired books, and handed them to SeeU. "I'll leave you in peace now, okay? I have a meeting with my architecture teacher."

"SeeWoo?" SeeU asked, almost sleepily, as SeeWoo turned around.

"Yeah, what?"

"Do you have two girlfriends?"

Even from here, from under half-closed lids, SeeU could see SeeWoo blush.

"No, but I have female friends. Why do you ask?"

* * *

In a haze of sleepiness, SeeU blinked. Slants of golden Tokyo sunlight quivered and gleamed in the room, dancing. The room wasn't gray anymore; it was a bit brighter. SeeU could make out the outline of a clock on the wall - one o'clock post meridian? She rubbed her eyes and sat up, and a sudden cough racked her entire body.

She was drenched in sweat. Each breath seemed to take more time, harder to get out. And it hurt to breathe. Chills crawled across her skin.

SeeU hugged herself and stumbled across the room. With fumbling fingers, she dug desperately around SeeWoo's things, encased in the bag. Was there a thermometer around? She spotted a laptop, bruised and scratched, sitting in a corner, as if abandoned. Was it old? Could it work? SeeU opened it and, to her mild surprise, it had been put in "sleep" mode. She opened a Google tab and listed her symptoms and asked what her illness was. Drawing a hand across her forehead, SeeU could feel the sweat. To her forehead, her hand felt cold, but it should be normal temperature.

SeeU chewed on the bottom of her lip as she waited for the page to load, and a fresh batch of coughs heaved her chest back and forth. After five minutes, the stuff on the page finally came onto the screen, and SeeU scanned the information.

_100° - 101°F = _mild fever

_102° - 103°F_ = moderate fever

_104°F+ = _**high fever, be careful**

Below were the symptoms of the different types of fevers, but SeeU didn't go on to look at that. There _must_ be a thermometer somewhere...but there wasn't. In the bag, there were architectural drawings, sketches, and doodles, a protractor, compass, ruler, one of those special pencils that SeeU thought they used for drawing manga, some books, but that was it. None of the books related to medical care.

SeeU got up and wrapped her blanket around her. "SeeWoo!" she called.

Nobody answered.

_He's probably still out,_ she thought. _It's one o'clock, though._ After a moment of thought, she added, _It's okay. I don't need to measure my temperature, but- I'm really sick..._

On that note, SeeU got up and went into the kitchen. "Tylenol...cough drops...anything?" she muttered to herself as she searched the cabinets and refrigerator. SeeU considered calling SeeWoo, but she didn't know his cell phone number, not even if he brought his cell phone with him. Thankfully, she didn't need to search long; at the back of one of the cabinets there was a white plastic box with a red cross on it.

SeeU climbed onto the countertop and reached far into the cabinet to retrieve the medical kit. Her muscles were sore, as if she had been working out for a very long time...but she didn't exercise at all today, unless walking around in the airports was called exercising. Opening the kit, SeeU saw sterile adhesive bandages, narrow adhesive strips, sterile gauze pads, hypoallergenic adhesive tape, absorbent cotton, sterile roller bandages, Q-tips and swabs, eye drops, antiseptic ointment with towelettes, latex gloves, aspirin, ice packs, a little bound book with the words "First Aid Handbook," and the like. Stashed at the bottom of all this was the thermometer.

* * *

The tiny print on the thermometer was slightly hard to read. SeeU squinted, and after a few moments, she was able to decipher 101.5°F/38.6°C.

It was only a mild fever. It wasn't that bad. It shouldn't be that bad.

* * *

"SeeU, I'm back!" SeeWoo called, entering the door, at strictly 2:00 p.m. SeeU had been Googling for more information for her symptoms, and was coming up lacking. Google just simply didn't have an answer to her questions yet. She was feeling worse. She had coughed up yellowish phlegm, and had been bombarding the Internet with questions, questions that the Internet was not fast enough to answer.

SeeU had climbed in bed again. Upon hearing his voice, SeeU flipped the side of the pillow she was lying on, over, and pressed her cheek to the cool softness.

"...SeeU?"

"I'm tired," SeeU mumbled, which wasn't exactly a lie. Her breathing was shallow, if not rapid, as if she couldn't catch her breath fast enough. Each time her chest heaved, it hurt worse, but yet for some reason she couldn't stop. Her cheeks were fiery and warm, but her hands were cold, her spine was cold, her feet were cold, so cold. SeeU dug her nails into the mattress, curling herself up into a clammy little ball. There was nothing more she wanted at the moment than just rest, close her eyes, and have a peaceful, long sleep.

"SeeU?" SeeWoo said again, entering the bedroom. SeeU flipped over so he couldn't see her wretched state, and stared out the window. Her eyes felt tired. The bright, strong sunshine still lingered in the room, persistently, and the curtains seemed to be glowing.

"SeeU, what's wrong?" SeeWoo leaned down and shook SeeU slightly. SeeU moaned and burrowed deeper into her mattress.

"_SeeU."_

"_What?"_

"You can't fool me. You're sick." He leaned down. "Come on, let me check your temperature."

"I already did," SeeU whispered raspily. Her throat was dry and parched, and she felt like throwing up. "101.5."

"It might have lowered. Come on."

Despite that, when SeeWoo got the temperature, SeeU's body temperature wasn't lower, but higher, 102 degrees Fahrenheit. SeeWoo sighed. "I'm not good at finding out which illness you have, but I'll give it a shot. You already opened the laptop." He opened a Google page. "Symptoms?"

"I already tried that."

"And it doesn't work?"

SeeU shook her head. That slightest movement made pain act up in her temples again. "Can I have an aspirin?"

"Aspirin's not good when you have a fever. Go get some acetaminophen. It's in the kitchen, on the cabinet third from the left. There's a glass of water on the counter if you want it." SeeWoo's hands flew over the keyboard, making clickety-clack sounds. It was a nice pattern to listen to, and SeeU found her fingers tapping to the rhythm. "Do you want it?" SeeWoo finally asked when SeeU didn't stir.

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not. Fine, I'll go get it." SeeWoo left the room.

Cold and miserable, SeeU's gaze strayed over to SeeWoo's laptop. Since he had closed the tab he had been on, the things he had been searching before appeared on the screen. A huge title in black text, kind of blurry and hard to discern from the crimson red background, caught her eye. _**Legends of the Ancient Times**_!_**LOLOLOLOLOLOL**_ proclaimed the title. Below that, a subtitle read, _**some which are still surviving today!LOLOLOL**_

_I hate exclamation points,_ SeeU thought.

Despite that, she was curious, and she read as best as she could from her perch on the bed. The font size was huge, so that wasn't too big of a problem, but the black and red simply didn't agree with her eyes, which was why SeeU had to reread phrases, sentences, and even whole paragraphs over - and those paragraphs dwarfed Manhattan's skyscrapers. Before long, SeeU's eyes grew more tired, but the way the writers wrote was captivating. SeeU leaned over and scrolled down, reading the entire time, until she found a huge list of all of the ancient legends around the world, retold over and over, translated into Japanese. SeeU would have loved to read them, but didn't feel like trying to decipher more of the hard-to-read text, so she crawled back her mattress.

SeeWoo came in about half a minute later, just when SeeU was feeling worse.

"Drink up." The smooth ridge of the glass touched SeeU's lip, its coldness almost alien to her. SeeU didn't want to open her mouth, but she did just enough so that some of the water would flow in. Having a fever, it wasn't the best taste, and she had lost her appetite for anything that goes to her stomach, but she decided to be obedient and drank about a fourth of the glass before pushing SeeWoo's arm away. The icy coldness surged toward SeeU's chest, motivating her to cough slightly. Just as she did, the pain in her chest grew.

"Are you sure you don't want more?" SeeWoo asked.

SeeU shook her head, and her brother returned to his laptop.

After about ten minutes, SeeWoo finally spoke up. "I think I've got something." SeeU didn't answer, her gaze fixed on the bright white sun that was drooping in the sky now.

"So," SeeWoo said, clearing his throat. "Do you cough? Often?"

SeeU nodded.

"Do you have a fever and a bunch of chills?"

SeeU nodded.

"Do you breathe quickly, but it never seems that you get enough air?"

SeeU nodded.

"Uh...do you want to eat anything?"

SeeU shook her head.

"Well, shit, SeeU," SeeWoo said. "You've got pneumonia."

* * *

**"Lung infection" is finally revealed! :D**

**Thank you for all the positive feedback so far! Thanks specially to yiseunggi, Ten-Faced, ownitlikeaboss, Katize Luka, and Troubled Windchimes (I know, they should set the character limit farther) for reviewing. ^^  
**

**I was about to say something about this, but...  
**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing anyway!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	4. IV: The First Paper Crane

_IV: The First Paper Crane_

The first thing SeeU did was to stare at her brother. Pneumonia? She hadn't contracted pneumonia since she was five. She tried to recall what her mother did to ease her pneumonic state, but failed.

"SeeU," SeeWoo said, "I've got to get you to the doctor."

"I don't want to go to the doctor." She didn't want a stranger exploring every part of her body.

"SeeU," SeeWoo said again, more gently. "I know him. He's a friend of mine, Gakupo. He'll get you through."

"When did you meet him?"

There was a strained silence on which SeeWoo seemed to burrow through his thoughts, trying to come up with the right snatch of information. SeeU coughed again. The knife of pain pushed itself even more deeply into her chest. There was nothing she wanted but to sleep, but pneumonia simply deprived her of that. SeeU recalled dimly a fluffy bed her mother would have made for her even if she was almost an adult, Tylenol she would have been given. But here, in this alien country, how did she belong? How _could_ she belong? It was the first time she'd ever been in Japan. How could she- ?

"I met him," SeeWoo said finally, breaking SeeU's thoughts, "when I first got sick with a cold. You know how terrible I am at treating myself. So I went to a clinic that one of my friends recommended. Well, then we struck up a friendship, and, you know..."

SeeU's blankets were drenched with sweat. "Do you have some other blankets around?"

"Sure, I always keep spares. But SeeU, Gakupo has a PhD in Medical Science..."

_If SeeWoo trusts him, I guess I can go._

_But_

_what the heck_

_I can't..._

"Is pneumonia easy to treat at home?"

"Maybe, if someone like Mother is around. You got your first attack of pneumonic stuff yesterday? Okay, that should be easy to treat. But I'm not like our mom. I guess the best thing to do is to pay Gakupo regular visits."

* * *

SeeU sat awkwardly behind a curtain on a bed with a thin mattress. She was stripped of clothing except for her bra and underwear, and felt shaking chills with the cold - not that she wasn't already cold. She looked around for something, _anything_, to cover her body, but there were no sheets as far as she looked. Besides, she was too timid to stand up and interrupt SeeWoo's and Gakupo's whispered conversation with something like, "Do you know if I can cover myself with sheets?" or "I'm cold."

Instead, SeeU chose to study Gakupo. He was tall, taller than the average man. He had a long ponytail, reminiscent of violets, cascading down his back. From what she could see, Gakupo's nails were painted purple, or maybe they changed color with the light, because she noticed one nail in the shadows that was bluish-indigo. He had sapphire eyes fringed by long purple lashes, and was dressed in a white lab coat with a few pens hanging from the breast pocket and a stethoscope around his neck. There was a Bunsen burner on the counter to the right, with some empty beakers lying around it. SeeU didn't know what it was doing there, but scooted a bit to the left.

Just when she was pondering Gakupo's presence, Gakupo chose that moment to turn around. SeeU was caught off guard staring at him, and suddenly she couldn't tear her eyes from his own. She was making herself dizzy, wondering what happened in his life that made his eyes look rather haunted, intense, but reassuring somehow. There was a long scar running across the side of his face, and SeeU thought about questioning her brother's and his friend's choices.

Only a second later did SeeU realize what she must have looked like to Gakupo, a ditzy blond girl with her mouth half-open.

"I-I'm sorry," SeeU blurted, her voice breathy and high-pitched somehow, from the brief gasps between her words. "I-I got carried away, and I -" She coughed, and suddenly felt Gakupo patting her back.

"How long does pneumonia last?" SeeWoo asked immediately.

"About...two to three weeks. For normal people. But SeeU has a weaker immune system?" Gakupo's voice was deep. Rich, SeeU thought.

"Yes. It takes her a little longer to heal than most people, and her body isn't as good when fending off diseases."

Gakupo scrutinized SeeU for a moment, and then he opened a cabinet up on the wall, taking out a fluffy blanket and draping it over her. It was cold, and kind of dusty, but SeeU held it close to her body and slowly she felt a bit better. Gakupo sort of pushed the blanket aside and pressed the cold, funnel shaped metal part of his stethoscope to SeeU's back for a few moments. "Breathe deeply," he instructed, but there was some trouble for SeeU doing that.

"Do you have time enough for an X-ray and a blood test?" Gakupo asked finally.

"Today?" SeeWoo asked.

"No, I mean tomorrow. I have more patients today."

"SeeU, do you want to go?"

"This isn't a matter of _do-you-want-to-go_," Gakupo said. "If her immune system is not competent, and she's had pneumonia since yesterday evening, it can get serious."

SeeWoo hesitated. "What time are you ready?"

"Any time. I'm free."

"Then what about ９ in the morning?"

"Go ahead."

* * *

"SeeU," SeeWoo said. "I thought you might want to look at this..." He showed her a slip of paper on which, SeeU guessed, was the handwriting of Gakupo. He had apparently scribbled it down really quickly, because it was messy and took SeeU a while to figure out.

_-Drink lots of fluids  
-Get some acetaminophen  
-Don't try to stop your cough unless it's hard for you to handle_

"Aren't coughs always hard for me to handle?" SeeU asked.

"I know, but I think he means that if it's not life-threatening, you should cough."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know," shrugged SeeWoo. "Medical science. Ask him." Then he brightened. "Oh, he said something about coughing is a way of getting rid of a disease. It has something to do with your lungs."

"Oh," SeeU said. She was tired again, and the mattress sitting on the bedroom floor was tempting. "I'm going to -"

"SeeU, wait." SeeWoo went to his computer and plugged something in on his search engine. Soon the same website about the legends popped up. At the bottom of the page, where all the legends were listed, SeeWoo clicked on a certain one and carried the laptop over to SeeU. "Look. The legend is about if someone folds a thousand paper cranes, they please the gods and they get one wish."

"And how do they know that's true?" SeeU asked.

SeeWoo sighed. "I'm not saying it's true. I'm just...you know, to keep yourself occupied. If I remember correctly, back when you were sick, you always complained of nothing to do."

"I don't think the gods will be pleased with your answer," SeeU said cynically, contradicting what she just said.

"I've got some colored wrapping paper," SeeWoo said, ignoring SeeU's sardonic comment. "You can fold and rip them into squares. Do you want me to teach you how to make one?"

SeeU looked at the paper spread out on her lap. There were rolls of crimson paper, patterned with metallic, shiny gold. Green paper with little Santas dancing across it. There were pieces of gray paper that featured an ink painting on each. There were even old calendars, beaten and old. She could see the words in weathered ink, _First Day of the Week, The Eleventh Month's 24th Day, 2008_ on one of them.

"Well?" SeeWoo asked.

"Teach me how," SeeU said finally.

* * *

The first paper SeeU folded a crane from was a cutout from a huge calendar. "It didn't belong to me; it belonged to the dude who owned this apartment before me," SeeWoo explained. "He just left it with me because he said he didn't need it."

SeeU watched SeeWoo closely with each step. She had never really folded something like a paper crane before, and every step was new to her. The first few steps were easy, but she got stuck on a part where you had to make the piece of paper kite-shaped, and keep it flattened out and not rip it. "How do you do this?" SeeU asked, frustrated.

"Oh, you just push this part" - SeeWoo demonstrated - "down, and then you press it, and you have the shape."

The finished product was not exactly what SeeU would call pretty. It was lopsided, and the wingtips had been folded unevenly. Still, she set it beside her. It looked as if it was landing from the sky, onto the water, into a well-anticipated and -paced glide.

Her first paper crane.

* * *

**Sorry for the late update! I didn't know for a while what to put. Well of course SeeU would be kind of wary of Gakkun after she saw the scar running down Gakupo's face, but Gakupo isn't a bad guy here...Maybe I'll write the reason of the scar. Later.**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	5. V: The Thirteenth Paper Crane

_V: The Thirteenth Paper Crane_

"What do you think most of my time is occupied doing?" SeeU demanded on a call home to one of her friends, Gumi. "Folding cranes, going through daily doctor checkups, shivering from pneumonia, that's what!"

"But isn't it nice living in Tokyo?" Gumi asked.

"Not when you're sick," SeeU replied.

"You didn't even see the Asakusa? Or the Chinzanso Garden? Or ate stuff from the Tsukiji Market? What about the Hamarikyu Gardens?" Gumi was stating stuff so fast that SeeU couldn't keep up with it. "You know, you should enjoy the riches you have while you're there! Tokyo has so many attractions, I'd kill to see one of them in person!"

"Who'd you kill?" SeeU asked miserably.

"...You don't get it."

SeeU was balancing the phone on one shoulder and folding her tenth crane with both her hands, but that wasn't easy: either she had to put the phone somewhere else, or not fold the crane. Nonetheless, SeeU was a firm believer in multitasking, and she staunchly began the first fold after ripping the patterned paper into a square.

After a brief silence on Gumi's part, said girl sighed. "I'm bored."

"What are you doing?" SeeU asked.

She heard the faint clicks that signified Gumi's typing. After a torrent of such sounds, there was a final, triumphant _click_. "Sending Ia something," Gumi finally said.

"Who's Ia?"

"She's Sonika's friend. Sonika is my cousin, by the way. Ia's been to Tokyo before, too."

_What does that have to do with me?_ SeeU wondered, but she was the one who had asked the question, after all, she reminded herself. It seemed that Gumi was obsessed with anything that anything to do with Tokyo. SeeU toyed with her unfinished crane, forgetting for a moment what she was doing with it. Fold-fold-press-fold-unfold, it had a nice rhythm to it. SeeU only realized what she was supposed to when the fold edges were already worn, easy to tear, not crisp anymore. But then, during sicknesses she was like that, having very short-term memory. SeeU quickly finished her tenth crane.

"So..." Gumi said, after another pause.

"Hi, what?"

"It's awkward here...Anyway, what are _you_ doing?"

"I already told you. Folding cranes."

"Really? How much have you folded so far?"

"Ten." Even as SeeU said this, she began to wonder - _only ten? But it's been like two days already..._Though, she had to admit, folding cranes without anything else to do was boring, and she might have slacked off a bit. If she put her mind to it, probably she could fold about fifty cranes per day undisturbed.

"Pneumonia isn't fun," SeeU said finally.

"Allergies aren't fun either, but it's almost the end of the year, so I don't need to worry about that."

SeeU coughed. Even though she knew she was getting treatment, she was getting worse. She remembered Gakupo's haunting words to her... "_Your pneumonia is caused by bacterial infestation, SeeU. It may be because of the airport and the city. Because it's like this, you may require hospital treatment..."_

"Do I have to have hospital treatment?" SeeU had asked instantly.

"No-ooo," Gakupo had replied, but hesitantly. "You may not...if your brother watches over you all the time." Which, of course, everybody knew he didn't. SeeWoo had other things to do - they weren't folly things, but they were important enough that he couldn't put them down.

Gakupo had given SeeU a huge book, big and imposing. "Read this. It's about pneumonia, and what causes it, so on."

It was her own fault that she wouldn't be hospitalized.

Now, sitting in bed, SeeU cleared her throat hoarsely, coughing every now and then. She flipped the age-wisened page. Even SeeU could tell that it was a rough translation to Japanese from some other language (German when she read the introduction). Some of the things that the book told about pneumonia, SeeU would really not like to know and be ignorant about, but she figured that as Gakupo recommended it, it couldn't exactly _hurt_ her.

_The red Hepatisation Stage._

_The lung's alveoli will be blocked with blood, and may become more inflamed as fluid continuously accumulates._

SeeU found herself touching her chest. Were her lungs like that right now?

_...any children under 8, people over 60, smokers, those who already have bad lung conditions or weakened immune systems should be hospitalized. The chances of surviving are more, if they were._

So that was where Gakupo got his information from.

SeeU immediately reached for another piece of paper. As she did, she accidentally hung up on Gumi. Oh well. There would be time to explain this later. Right now, SeeU needed to catch her breath and think for a moment. Almost unbeknownst to her, SeeU had begun to cite folding cranes as an option of comfort. Quickly, SeeU folded the eleventh crane, and the twelfth, numbered them, but hesitated on the thirteenth.

For so long, the number thirteen was counted as unlucky. What phobia was it...? Tris -? _...Triskaidekaphobia._ Should she fold it and just number it as number fourteen?

There was something that SeeU faintly remembered about gods appreciating honesty. She absently turned the paper over in her hands, considering it, and nearly fell out of her bed when the phone rang shrilly. SeeU grabbed the phone, and pressed it to her ear.

"Hi!" she said breathlessly, hoarsely.

"SeeU? Are you mad at me?" It was Gumi, sounding apprehensive.

"What? ...No, am I supposed to be?"

"Good. Shew." SeeU could hear Gumi breathe a sigh of relief. "I just thought...the way you hung up... Sorry, I sounded totally Tokyo-obsessed, didn't I? I just got kind of excited. It really _isn't_ fun for you, is it, in Tokyo? It might seem like such a hard place to live, to you. With the illness, and your brother having not much time to take care of you...strangers, you know?"

_Yes, strangers,_ thought SeeU. _Galaco and Mayu and Teto and Luo Tianyi...I think I'm opening up._ "They're not all that bad," she said mildly.

There was a huge crash on Gumi's side. "SEEU, I NEVER THOUGHT I'D LIVE TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT! OW, MY BUTT!"

"Me neither, you know? But...really...What happened to your butt?"

"Nothing, I just hit it on the edge of the side of a chair. It hurts, you know, especially since I've hit the spine part. I'm making food. It's almost lunchtime. I nearly cut myself. I blame you-..."

SeeU wasn't really listening after that. She looked down at the paper in her hands. Saying that strangers weren't bad seemed to open a new door for her. Strangers exploring her body, if they were there to help, it wouldn't matter, would it? What use was it, sitting here, not able to go anywhere because of a stupid lung infection?

Slowly, SeeU finished the thirteenth crane, taking extra pains to make it perfect.

Maybe thirteen was the bad number for everybody, but maybe she could make it do some magic for herself. She set the crane next to her. It sat there, proud and regal, patterned gold with red background.

Then SeeU began the next crane, but the magic moment had been broken. Her hands began working fast, and faster, again.

* * *

"SeeWoo," SeeU said immediately when SeeWoo came home. "I'll go to the hospital."

"B-but - I mean, it's -"

"No fees for you, I'll pay it all."

"What about -"

"I thought it over, SeeWoo."

"I'll call Gakupo," SeeWoo said, sounding resigned.

* * *

After that, even though SeeU didn't always believe in superstitions, she always thought the thirteenth crane was special. And it was. _Special_.

Simply by a glance, she could separate the thirteenth crane from the rest of the cranes. How she had the eye for detail, she didn't know, but it came handy. Perhaps it would be her savior and protector throughout her battle with pneumonia.

SeeU smiled at that.

* * *

**I know that I update late a long time, and my updates suck when they're late ^^; However, I just had to publish this chapter today. Don't know why, though. I forgot to say thank-you to the readers who reviewed chapter three...So here goes, thanks to the following reviewers who reviewed: Troubled Windchimes x2, ownitlikeaboss x2, Ten-Faced x2, and Honeycloud. Thank you again, everyone!**

**And yet another thank-you for the people who read and reviewed this chapter! :D  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	6. VI: The Fiftieth Paper Crane

_VI: The Fiftieth Paper Crane_

Fifty

Half of a century

Half of a hundred

Worth half a dollar

Half of almost everything

Divisible by 1,2,5,10,25, and itself

It was just a series of musings, set onto paper. What did it mean? Was there even a hidden message in fifty? The sun was going down; it had been a few hours since SeeU had been hospitalized. All they did was to run basic tests on her, just like Gakupo had done, but the equipment was more complicated. The doctor here had set a corked little glass bottle by SeeU's bedside, filled to the brim with a fragrant oil - "rosewood," he had explained before he left. "Its aroma killed the _S. pneumoniæ_, so we're wondering if it could cure pneumonia itself as well."

"You'd need about two or three days until you can come home again and I'll treat you from there," SeeWoo had explained after a long conversation on the phone with Gakupo. "Your temperature needs to be about 98.6 degrees, as in the normal temperature. And you have to breathe normally, feel better, and have a healthy appetite. Is that okay with you? Oh - and, er, Galaco and Mayu will be visiting..."

SeeU's paper cranes sat on the little bedside table she had next to her, the thirteenth crane perched right beside the lamp. During the drive to the hospital and in the time she was there, SeeU's hands had gone into overdrive, folding and folding again. Her cranes amounted to thrice, maybe even more, of what she had when she was talking to Gumi on the phone. Her fortieth crane was just finished, and SeeU planned to reach fifty cranes before the day ended.

There was nothing else to do, anyway.

* * *

It was only seven o'clock in the evening, but yet it already seemed like nine. The sky was so dark that only the city lights were glinting and blinking. SeeU had gotten used to sleeping in the city, but in an unfamiliar place, she couldn't even fall asleep. All the other days she had fallen into a dreamless slumber, early, so maybe that explained her drowsiness. Either that, or it was the medication she was given.

_Forty-eight..._

SeeU's fingers fumbled and tripped as she drew her nail along the edge of the fold. The paper made a crisp crinkling sound as it bent to SeeU's will. Beside her, on the next bed, a delirious patient snored softly, his muttered words sometimes coming into SeeU's hearing distance - "dear, darling Meiko;" "plum ice cream;" "she'd up and done it."

The hospital ward was almost silent except for that. She had never thought about a hospital ward being awkward to sit in, but it was.

This thick, lethargic silence was suddenly broken by a scuffling, then sharp clip-clopping of heels on the hard slate floor. A nurse was coming closer. She was not walking at a pace that defined clearly that she wanted to speak to SeeU; yet, she wasn't too slow either. This nurse was taking her time, weaving back and forth, mumbling to the woman who followed her.

And that woman? The woman was the one making the clip-clop sounds. She balanced on precariously high black heels, nodding absently as the nurse chattered away. One side of the hair on her head was blonde; the other was a mousse-chocolate brown. On the side that was brown, a rosebud pink, an azure blue, and a creamy blonde streak was dyed on her bangs. She had honeycomb brown eyes that implied gentleness, but had a specially determined air about her as she followed the nurse. The woman wore a black dress that swept her knees, and a white jacket over the dress. Glancing back at the woman's hair, SeeU recalled briefly that SeeWoo mentioned something about red, blue, and yellow, but wasn't that supposed to be a car?

SeeU's half-finished forty-eighth crane sat on her lap as her eyes followed the nurse. SeeU didn't particularly mean to stare, but it was kind of interesting, seeing a regal, majestic sort of person follow a quiet nurse.

And then the nurse stopped at SeeU's bed.

"Hello, SeeU," she said, smiling. "Are you feeling better?"

SeeU shrugged and nodded at the same time.

"Good," the nurse said, taking the little bottle by SeeU's bedside and switching it with another bottle, with another scent. "Oregano."

"They smell good," SeeU said, trying to stretch the conversation for as long as possible. Maybe it was just that she didn't want the nurse to leave, it would suck. "Well...rosewood smells good."

The nurse nodded. "Yes, they are supposed to. I have a visitor for you."

The exact thing SeeU was both dreading and aching to hear her to say.

"She's - here, let her introduce herself. I will be back in five minutes," and then the nurse scuffled away, holding the rosewood-scented bottle.

The regal, majestic woman stood there for a few seconds, looking around. SeeU saw a slight nervousness in her eyes. The woman twisted a ring on the middle finger of her right hand: it wasn't delicate, as SeeU thought it would be; her hand was rough and callused as if she was working. There was a thin cut twisted around her index finger, running down to the base of the thumb. Her left hand was blistered, and many of those blisters had ripped. Slowly, SeeU made the last fold, and took the paper for her forty-ninth crane. After another long, awkward moment, the woman spoke up.

"Hi, SeeU," she said. "I'm Galaco."

"The car," SeeU said. She coughed. _Wait - what? Galaco the car? N-no, that's insulting..._ "Oh, uh, I mean, you lent the car to my brother. Sorry...I'm not feeling well right now."

"Yes," Galaco seemed to relax a bit. She took a seat at the very edge of SeeU's bed. "It's okay. Do you like it?"

"The car?" SeeU repeated. She thought a moment. It wasn't hard to ride on - like any other car she'd been in. Of course it had been a novelty, kind of like a taxi car ride (every taxi was different). The seats were soft and comfortable and bouncy, the driving wheel was on the right, it used a stick shift. There were some charms dangling from the rearview mirror. Was she supposed to have favorites of a car?

"No," Galaco said, laughing. "I mean, do you like it here?"

"In a hospital? Uh, it's okay, why?"

"SeeWoo told me..." Galaco's smile faltered, and SeeU could see a slow blush rise onto her cheeks. She began twirling a lock of brown hair, and the blush deepened as she repeated, "SeeWoo...SeeWoo told me that you didn't like hospitals." She seemed to have some trouble getting the "SeeWoo" part out, but with "...told me that you didn't like hospitals," Galaco spoke shamelessly.

"No - well, I just don't like being in a place with too many people. I feel like I'm being restricted or something."

"Claustrophobia?" Galaco suggested.

"No, not that."

"Oh." Silence. "Well, I just came because I thought you needed some company...Well, I mean, of course you don't know me, but..." Galaco caught SeeU staring at her peculiar cut. "Paper cut," she offered. "I was completing an architectural drawing of a building in Thailand, through a photograph. It was training."

"Does Mayu work in the architectural thingy too?"

Galaco frowned. "_Mayu_? You mean - oh." She laughed shortly. "Mayu...heck no. She's too _delicate_ for such things. She works as the secretary of my boss - you know, sorting papers and such, reviewing architectural drawings," and then she paused again. "I supposed Mayu caught a liking to SeeWoo." There it was. Another blush, but Galaco's expression hardened again. "So...that's that. No pay promotions for me, even though I'm usually the first one to visit workers and engineers, work with them, and draw with them. No pay promotions even when I work with the ones studying architecture."

"Oh," SeeU said awkwardly. She only subconsciously noticed that she finished her forty-ninth crane. The fiftieth paper crane was only an arm's distance away. If she could get the paper...but she didn't want to, not right now.

Galaco caught sight of her cranes. "Folding these?"

"Yes," SeeU said.

"Who taught you?"

"My brother."

"Your brother is good at a great many things, isn't he?" Galaco said softly.

"Well, I'd like to think that he's good at being a brother than any of the rest," SeeU said. Her back ached slightly from sitting upright for so long, and her eyelids felt heavy again, so SeeU leaned back on her pillows to ease the pain. "But...well, to be honest, he has a flair for art of all kinds. A-aah, he's a good brother, but -"

With a soft _creak_, the hospital ward's door opened and the nurse came in. "Five minutes."

"Can I have another?" Galaco asked, as SeeU slowly began the first fold of her fiftieth crane. "One minute. I haven't finished my conversation with her - SeeU - yet."

"Ma'am, there's a chance that you'd catch pneumonia too if you -"

"I'm not particularly susceptible to pneumonia," Galaco said. "I've been hanging around my mother - who was sick for most of the time - for the first eighteen years of my life. She caught pneumonia three times during that period, and I'd been with her each time. I didn't catch it."

The nurse stared at Galaco for a moment, before shrugging. "One more minute, and then you must leave."

"Fine," Galaco muttered, turning back to SeeU again. "So...where did we leave off?"

"SeeWoo. My bro."

"Right." Galaco let out a whistle-like sigh. "I don't know...I haven't felt like this for a long time, talking about someone I care about. I just...be careful, SeeU, okay? Take care of your brother. You're - I know you're younger than him, and all that, but he's reckless. Perhaps you saw that recklessness before? I just want you to keep an eye on him if you can. Is that okay, SeeU? Can you promise me?"

SeeU's hands momentarily froze in their position as she was finishing the paper crane, shaping the crane's beak. Her throat felt like sawdust, and this time it wasn't because of her pneumonia. What was she supposed to answer Galaco? Wasn't _SeeWoo_ supposed to take care of _her_? The concept Galaco had was totally backward, and yet, it sort of made sense.

Wasn't she always the one who told SeeWoo not to do something?

Wasn't she always the one who told SeeWoo to be careful?

Wasn't she...?

"Sure," SeeU said hoarsely, as if her vocal cords had begun being used again after a period of neglect. She didn't bother to look away from Galaco's eyes. "I...promise."

Her fiftieth crane, still not quite a paper crane yet, indifferently sat on her lap.

"That's good," Galaco said with a smile, the determined iciness melting from her eyes. Suddenly she seemed to be fatigued, tired. As the nurse came in to tell Galaco her minute was up, Galaco stood up. "That's good," she repeated. "See you later, SeeU."

Slowly, SeeU made the edge of the paper crane's break crisp and sharp. She gazed after Galaco as she left. "_I suppose Mayu caught a liking to SeeWoo,"_ Galaco had said, almost bitterly. And Galaco acted like she liked SeeWoo herself, did she not...?

The fiftieth crane landed on the bedside table, gracefully arching its back, a total contrast to the confusion SeeU was feeling.

_Why must love triangles exist?_ SeeU thought, as she settled in bed to ease herself into a night's sleep.

* * *

**There really isn't much to say, as I've exhausted the apology of "I'm sorry I'm updating late, blah blah blah." I feel kind of childish right now; I was just looking at a conversation online by eight-year-olds or something on a blog that tells you the walkthrough to an online game that has a bunch of quests (that are actually kind of fun, but made for people like six-year-olds). The conversation had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the walkthrough, and I was thinking, "Wow, that's off-topic..."**

**So my brain is just temporarily stalling and refusing to let me think like _me_. Basically, thank you to the reviewers for the last chapter- Ten-Faced, Troubled Windchimes, Katize Luka, and ownitlikeaboss. :)  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	7. VII: The Hundredth Paper Crane

_VII: The Hundredth Paper Crane_

The hours had become listlessly dull, although it was only in the middle of SeeU's first day in the hospital. Folding paper cranes had become a regular habit. Having nothing else to do, she began to do mental math in her head with each crane she folded. Now, her cranes amounted to seventy-five..._Nine hundred twenty-five more_.

Discouraged, SeeU felt her heart sinking. Would she ever win pneumonia over this time? The hateful disease that kept her as a heavy stormcloud over her brother's mind, prevented her for enjoying Tokyo, detained her from telling her friends what she'd saw. The seventy-sixth half-folded crane sat motionlessly in her hands. With an easy slicing motion SeeU could easily rip it apart. Dare she believe the myth? It was strange to her, a cold, fleeting darkness, a husky rumble of words. They were not like the legends she had been told that were filled with light. Stories about the moon goddess Goguryeo, the happenings in Iseung - these were filled with light and her mother's warm voice that fanned and reverberated in SeeU's head. These were the ones that she had heard since she was a young child - _But I'm not in Korea,_ SeeU reminded herself. _I'm in Japan, and Japan is different._

Would the gods of Japan, if they existed, like it if SeeU was thinking of the stories of another country? Pondering this, SeeU's hands swiftly finished the seventy-sixth crane, and ten more before she was aware that she now had eleven more paper cranes while she was thinking.

Yet again SeeU thought about Galaco. This woman had taken control of her thoughts now; around every fifteen minutes, Galaco's words that were shallowly implanted in SeeU's head slowly lassoed SeeU's thoughts back to her. Galaco and Mayu: they both were attracted to the same person, but hated each other. How could that be? It was eerie and irresolute. SeeU's head hurt just thinking about it. It was like trying to solve an algebra problem that involved way too many variables.

_Now I'm starting to think like the people in the love stories,_ SeeU thought irritably, tossing the eighty-seventh crane onto her growing amount of cranes, taking her anger out on folding cranes. _I'm not even part of it! Why should I worry about it? This is irrational._ Irrational it was, but SeeU still had a nagging feeling that Galaco might sacrifice anything for SeeWoo's attention and approval. Not sacrifice anybody else; Galaco would toss something of her own into the gaping, endless empty basket of things given by desperate people, never filled and always longing. But what would Galaco give?

Still, Galaco was sensible. SeeU knew. She wouldn't do anything that was too crazy.

_Love tempts people to do crazy things,_ she argued with herself. SeeU recalled a story her mother made up before, telling it to her at the beginning of SeeU's adolescence. "Don't you ever fall hopelessly in love," her mother had warned. "You have your entire life ahead of you, and it is unsuitable for you to spend it this way." Then she went on to tell SeeU about two girls falling in love with a man, and how one of them killed herself after seeing the man flirting with the other girl. "It is partially the man's fault, and yet the girl chose to end her own life instead of moving on. Do not be like that. Be strong."

It was slightly sad, but SeeU didn't care much for its meaning. "You have to experience it to feel it," the whispered words floating across her mind. The ninetieth paper crane landed on the tabletop smoothly.

"It's almost a hundred," SeeU assured herself, breaking the train of thoughts. "Well, nine hundred more." Sometimes looking at the glass half full gave a bare, lucid illusion that meant nothing, that hardly existed. Why was SeeU talking aloud to herself anyway? She glanced across at the blue-haired man - still delirious with fever - next to her. He was half asleep and half awake, it seemed, and staring at the ceiling with eyes half open.

The vial by SeeU's bed had been switched again, back to rosewood. When the nurse came to switch it, SeeU asked for some thread to string her cranes together. While she strung, she counted, and as far as she knew, no crane was missing. The strings the nurse gave her were long enough to fit one hundred cranes on each (or so SeeU estimated), so there were still ten strings but only nine were bare. They hung from the bedside table.

She was still troubled. Maybe it was the sky today; winter was drawing nearer, and the sky was a cloudy gray. The air wasn't damp - at least it didn't look like it would be - but it was definitely cold and chilly. The oblong-shaped window behind SeeU's bed revealed to her an amazing view of Tokyo, and as far as she could see, people were hurrying back and forth, bent like slim, young hickory sticks against the roaring wind.

Meanwhile, pneumonia was still being a jerk to her, even though she was given medicines. They made SeeU feel better for some time period, but wouldn't last more than a few hours, which discouraged her into wondering if they were nothing but painkillers.

"Ninety-one...Ninety-two...Ninety-three..." The said paper cranes landed on the table. What significance did they have? She would string them up later... "Ninety-four...ninety-five..." Five more to a hundred. She was almost surprised at her progress. But it was extremely _boring_ to have to do nothing but take medications and fold cranes all the time. "Ninety-six."

A soft scuffling told SeeU that the nurse came again. She glanced up. The same nurse was coming, with a white-blonde woman behind her.

_Mayu._

Quickly SeeU ducked her head and folded another crane. The steps were firmly etched into her mind now, and her fingers darted about with skill. SeeU wondered what Mayu possibly could want to talk about with her now. She only just met Mayu, but then, Galaco...

_...Is Mayu seriously going to give me the same talk Galaco gave me?_

SeeU had a fleeting thought that maybe Mayu and Galaco weren't so different after all.

* * *

"SeeU," the nurse said, "Mayu tells me that you know her."

"Which she does," Mayu supplied.

"SeeU, do you know her?" the nurse asked, frowning.

SeeU nodded, her eyes darting from Mayu to the nurse. Mayu was petite and curvy, unlike Galaco, who was slim and tall. She wore a black beret that was tilted to the side at a slight angle, and a dress that frilled and laced with dark magenta ribbons. Her gloves hugged the length of her elbow to her fingertips. Two shiny black shoes peeked out meekly, coming after her dark silk stockings. In one hand Mayu gripped a lacy black umbrella that was drenched in rainwater. Mayu's outfit was a great contrast from her bright, floaty hair, which was probably one of the factors that made her look odd. Mayu almost looked childish, but had a determination and defiance that immediately pushed SeeU to fold another crane out of nervousness.

"Hi, SeeU," Mayu said.

"SeeU, are you finished with your first string?" the nurse asked, to which SeeU shook her head. "Well, I'll leave you alone, okay?" she added hesitantly. As she padded away, SeeU heard her mumble, "So many visitors..."

"SeeU, you can fold your cranes while we talk." Mayu pulled a stool from nearby, and its metal made a sharp screeching sound on the tiled floor. "Oops." She shrugged apologetically to the people who turned to look. "Anyway, SeeU, I wanted to tell you about something. _Galaco _came yesterday, right?" There was a coldness to her voice as she said "Galaco."

"Yes," SeeU said.

"Go on. Keep folding. I like it when I see you fold cranes. Anyway, she talked about SeeWoo, right?" There was not the slightest hint of a blush on Mayu's face as she said _SeeWoo_, but her voice softened.

SeeU slowly nodded again as she folded her ninety-ninth crane.

"She talked about protecting him?" Mayu added, her voice slowly becoming steely. "Protecting, watching over, and taking care of? Being his guardian?" Mayu didn't stop for SeeU to answer. "Galaco is _too_ overprotective; that's why I didn't promote her. Architecture is art. It is permanence. It is not protection. No, that's engineering. Architecture is design and elegance. If she does not understand this, she _cannot_ be promoted. Oh, I know that fold. You're in the middle of finishing your crane, right?"

Startled at the change of subject, SeeU jumped and then nodded. "...Yeah. I only have a few more folds until I finish."

"I see." Mayu's gaze seemed to drill into SeeU. There was a very long pause as SeeU finished her crane - _again_ - and began to string them up. Mayu was still silent by the time she was done. There was space enough for one last paper crane, and some extra string that SeeU resolved she could tie into a knot.

"That's the hundredth crane, hmm?" Mayu asked softly when SeeU took some shiny gold paper.

"Yes." SeeU was tired of saying "yes," but what else could she say?

"Can I help? I remember folding cranes when I was little."

Mayu's help cut the time SeeU usually used to fold a crane in half. Mayu took off her gloves to do the work. She was agile with her hands; the skin on them was smooth and soft, another contrast to Galaco. The only part that was calloused was the skin on the side of her middle finger, which SeeU guessed was from holding a writing utensil all day long.

"Thank you," Mayu said cheerfully after they finished, as if nothing really tense had passed between them. "That was some fun I hadn't had in a long time."

SeeU watched her leave.

* * *

**Okay, so one day I am going to try to publish faster. Not today, though.  
BREAK HAS BEGUN! ;D Officially! So I won't be seeing any of my classmates until next year (2013)~ I****'m going to China for a week or so, but I'll try to keep up with the stories as usual. It's going to be snowing in China, and I really, _really_ hope I could get into a good snowball fight with my friends (that live in China). I haven't played with snow since I was like...what?...two. I don't even remember how it's like...  
**

**Well, anyway, back to the story. You can see that Mayu and Galaco have very different personalities on the outside, but seriously, they're not as different on the inside as you'd think. They're both kind of ambitious and jealous of each other. Which is why the drama might amount to a climax point later on...  
**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	8. VIII: The 200th Paper Crane

_VIII: The 200th Paper Crane_

One string and nine-tenths of the next were filled up with variously-colored cranes. A more cheerful mood had fallen over SeeU. It was still the same day when Mayu came, but the awkward feelings had long melted away. If she could fold up to fifty cranes the day before, she should be able to fold double the amount this day.

One by one the cranes landed on the table.

SeeU coughed, and her hands trembled as her chest heaved. Some time after Mayu had left, she had coughed up blood. SeeU wasn't an expert at medicines, but this one she knew the meaning of: _Not good._ The last time the hospital doctor came - thirty minutes ago - had said to her, "Next time, get some pneumococcal shots; you need it."

"There's no reason for me to get it now; I've gotten pneumonia already," SeeU had pointed out. The doctor shrugged and had to agree. "But I'll do it once the pneumonia recedes."

The sun was beginning to hide behind the buildings.

SeeU tried to recall some old legends she'd been told. Gumiho, the girl who turned out to be a nine-tailed fox and ate the liver of anything she could get. Not the happiest legend to recall at the moment, but at least it was something that tied her to life and not losing her mind in boredom while she folded paper cranes and did other random things such as sit in bed and think and listen to herself breathing and contemplate death.

_Once I finish the 200th crane, I'll only have 800 more,_ SeeU said to herself. _Big leap from when I started. Isn't that great._ At this rate, she'd get all of the thousand cranes done in nine days or so. But that wasn't supposed to be possible. The worse part of pneumonia was probably to come.

* * *

"You have a call," the nurse said, a quizzical expression on her face, as she handed SeeU the phone. Said girl pressed the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Gumi again," the voice on the other side said breathlessly. It would make sense. Gumi was _always_ breathless, because she was always flittering around excitedly, energetically.

"Hello, Gumi."

"So, I heard that you're in the hospital now. I hope you get better."

"Thank you, Gumi," SeeU said robotically.

"Once you come back, we'll hold a happy eighteenth birthday party for you," Gumi added. "You'd better not be sick _then_. You wouldn't be able to indulge in the festivities, and there are so many! Oops, I shouldn't give out more than that. Well, I have to go now. Bye!"

She hung up.

SeeU sighed and gave the phone back to the nurse. "What's the healing time for pneumonia?" she asked again.

The nurse raised her eyebrows. "Two or three weeks."

_That's enough for me to recuperate, explore Tokyo, and go back healed,_ SeeU thought. "Thank you."

* * *

The 200th crane glimmered in the last light of the sun.

It wasn't as glorious as the thirteenth crane, nor as clumsy-in-an-appealing-way as the first crane. But each fold was pronounced and beautiful: the result from the hands of a girl who was just beginning to find her way through the arts of origami.

But SeeU was exhausted. The happenings in this day and the day before was too much for her mind to digest in just one day, especially in her pneumonic state. She needed some rest.

Her head hit the pillow, and she fell asleep.

* * *

**Sorry for the very short chapter! I didn't have any motivation on this one. :( However, I think (I hope) the next chapter will be much longer than this. Oh yes, and thanks to Ten-Faced for the legend about Gumiho. It would make a fabulous SeeU/Miku song, I was thinking earlier.  
**

**Thanks to Troubled Windchimes x2, ownitlikeaboss x2, Ten-Faced x2, and Katize Luka for reviewing Chapter 6 and 7, and Stargazing Miracle for reviewing Chapter 1. Merry Christmas to all!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	9. IX: The 500th - or 600th - Paper Crane

_IX: The 500th - or maybe 600th - Paper Crane_

The 500th paper crane would be five hundred times (obviously) of what SeeU had when she began. It was starting to become a repetitive game now. Her _life_ was a repetitive game. It never changed. It only proceeded steadily on, meandering around obstacles, slowing in its turn, climbing up the hill. And SeeU was sick of this.

"How long was it since I did anything _useful_?" she grumbled, stringing her 480th crane onto the long, thin strands of fiber.

The worry that she was a burden still hung over her. How would she pay the hospital? She had, after all, promised to her brother that she'd cover the expenses. How much did the hospital cost, anyway?

It was the third day in the hospital. At least the next day she'd probably get to be back in her brother's apartment again.

The hospital had dull black-tiled floors that however the nurses mopped it, it just always looked germy and dirty. There were high, thin windows on SeeU's side of the room, and oily-looking (but not really) cheesecloth curtains covered them, hanging down from a metal bar cemented across the top of the room. There was always a thin layer of dust, somehow, on the creamy, grayish tiles on the wall that had probably seen better days and were shell-white back then. SeeU didn't mind this except for the fact that it was lonely. The atmosphere hovered over everybody - or maybe it was just her.

The guy who had the mental problems, who slept right next to her, was sleeping almost every time she looked at him now. He was on a breathing machine, and the nurse had whispered to her that he had this condition called mental deterioration though she wouldn't say the exact illness ("And no, it's not dementia"), and whatever it was and what effects it had on him, it did not sound pretty. Only once was SeeU able to see him with his eyes open, and they looked at each other for a second.

His eyes were blue. Azure blue. They conveyed blankness of the mind to her, that nothing much was going on in the mind now, but they spoke of layers of history - not unlike Gakupo's, but they were different, lighter, of a gentler hue. Happier times. In a rushing moment of nostalgia, SeeU was briefly transported back to her childhood, how she had tripped over the hem of her summer dress in a game of tag and rolled to her back to realize that the boy who was chasing her had landed on top of her and was now gazing at her eyes. They were the same blue. Well, almost the same.

Then the man had closed them and fallen asleep.

_Isn't it odd? Terrible things never happen to the people who want or deserve them - they only happen to the completely innocent ones. It's funny, too, how one moment we're happy, and the next, just one thing could revert our moods to death wishes._

* * *

"What's the name of that guy?" SeeU asked the nurse later.

"What guy? Now, close your eyes and inhale deeply." She pressed a stethoscope to SeeU's chest, and slid down to her belly, and told SeeU to flip over to examine the back.

"I mean that guy," SeeU said, wincing as the cold metal touched her chest. Hospital treatment proved efficient and she was rapidly getting better - not totally better, but good enough to not feel too weak. "The guy who's next to me."

"Oh. I thought you were through with him already."

"What?"

"Never mind. I thought I told you all that you needed to know about him," the nurse said.

"What's his name?" SeeU asked pointedly.

"Oh." The nurse frowned. "Well, okay. I told you all that I knew and what _you_ needed to know about him."

"So you don't know his name."

"No," the nurse agreed. "But you can go ask the office for his name, his files and charts, that sort of thing, although I doubt the secretary would let you. SeeU, I'm done with your heartbeat-breathing test. They're still a little faster than normal, but your body, for the most part, has gotten used to this fast breathing so you don't feel that anything is different except for some nausea and such. Still, it'll take you about one more week to heal."

That gave SeeU three more weeks - if she healed the next week - to go roam Tokyo and see the sights that Gumi so enthusiastically thrust upon her. And meet a few of her most favorite singers, too. The city was quite beautiful when it was nighttime and you were overlooking a lighted highway - especially during holiday season, which SeeU was in right now - though not as beautiful as the suburbs, where SeeU had been born and bred.

And it was going to be her birthday, too, the next week. The sixteenth of December, the next Sunday.

SeeU wondered what would happen this time, now that it was a birthday that certified she was an adult.

* * *

_she had always longed _

_for this to happen; it was_

_of her greatest wish._

* * *

It was written by a blue ballpoint pen on yellow lined paper that was part of a notepad that was the size and color of a regular Post-It. The poem was in SeeU's swirly script. She had decided that this would be the paper for her 500th crane, and it was partly true - she _had_ longed to get to the halfway point, but it was bordering more on her eighteenth birthday than the 500th paper crane.

_I should have made a poem like this when I was nine,_ SeeU thought to herself. _That's a halfway mark to a woman, too._

"I'm bored," SeeU said aloud, voicing the obvious. She had long finished the 480th crane and now was on her 499th one, and it certainly wasn't making itself easy to fold for her. For one, it was half-cardboard, and cardboard bent and creased unattractively at the worst spots. Second, her fingers and eyes were getting tired. Third, she just needed a break and somewhere to go. There were daily breaks in which she got out of the bed and walked around a little, walked in and out of the hospital, exercised, but that was about it. SeeU was bored out of her mind.

Suddenly the nurse's voice was above her. "Um, SeeU? Another visitor."

_Oh, please, no, not another girl involved in SeeWoo's love triangle to make it be called a love square._ SeeU raised her eyes up, prepared for the worst, but of all of the people who should be there -

SeeWoo?

"Why are you here?" she blurted, drawing a hand across her tired eyes. Then SeeU realized how rude that sounded. "Sorry. I just..."

"It's okay." SeeWoo had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. There were faint dark circles under his eyes, as if he tried to apply mascara and failed horribly at it, but when SeeU looked more closely, it was from sleepless nights. "I brought you something..."

"An early birthday present?"

"No. You'll see about your birthday present on your birthday. It's a gift for you to get better."

"Isn't that great."

"One day, I _will _teach you to be optimistic," SeeWoo said, his lips twitching into a smile. "But not now. Come take a look yourself." He sat the bag right next to SeeU, and he unclasped the look. SeeU peered inside, not sure of what to expect, when she realized that it was a jumble of folded paper.

Paper cranes, to be exact.

"How - ?"

"I hope I counted right," SeeWoo said worriedly. "I was folding cranes all while you were in the hospital. I think it's a hundred paper cranes, a tenth of a thousand. Here." And he dumped the entire contents of the bag on SeeU's lap. Cranes of all shapes and sizes and colors fell all over SeeU's lap. SeeWoo immediately began to count them again, and that was a relief, for SeeWoo couldn't see his sister's face, which didn't know what emotion to twist itself into. There were so many feelings SeeU felt at the moment - mainly love and shock and happiness and not knowing just how exactly she'd repay her brother - that were impossible to cram into one facial expression, so she just kept her expression when she first saw the cranes: amazement.

"Oh," SeeWoo added. "I almost forgot. I covered the hospital expenses."

SeeU's jaw dropped, but she quickly slammed it shut. In that moment, she finally found her tongue. "_What_?" she cried. Mostly she felt a bit relieved that she wouldn't have to scrounge for money and be in debt to her brother, but she also felt useless. When could she _finally_ do something without relying on her brother?

"It's okay, SeeU," SeeWoo said. "It just didn't feel right for me to sit around and watch you be sick while trying to pay the hospital for their deeds. So I just...broke your rule..."

SeeU sighed and settled in her cushion.

"You're not mad, are you?" A fleck of worry rose into SeeWoo's eyes. SeeU shook her head.

"I can't be mad at a brother like you."

"That's good," SeeWoo said, smiling again. "I guess I have to go now. Take care of the cranes. Oh, and don't worry so much while you have pneumonia. You'll live longer that way."

SeeU was speechless. But she reached out to hug her brother.

By brother standards, he was the best that the best could be.

After he left, she carefully strung up his cranes on a separate string, and then finished her 500th paper crane and her fifth string. Only four more strings were empty now.

* * *

**HAI HAIIII~**

**Missed me? 8D  
**

**I-I'M SO SORRY! D; But it's... not my fault... that I wasn't allowed to access the Internet in the Osaka-Kansai airport in Japan and that in China Google Docs just kept loading and never appeared. Well, maybe it was that I didn't do extra research, but I'm serious, I'm so sorry! D; It makes me nostalgic already to think about my time in China and Japan, that I want to cry D;  
Oh, and the Internet in China/Japan wouldn't allow me to access YouTube either. D: I was practically dying by the time we were to leave because I couldn't listen to the new releases by the utaites.  
**

**So while I was in China and Japan, I was sprouting a lot of ideas for stories (and writing down what happened in China and Japan). I'll go summarise it later in the Quizilla journal; now is too emotional a time (agh, I cry too easily). I'll put away the log and my ideas for now in my desk, and when I feel like it, I'm going to take it out and read it. Now I'm going to try to figure out how to make snowflakes in my science project. -_-  
**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing (as always)!  
**

**_EDIT:_ Dear Guest- Well, China didn't fully block Google Docs or YouTube. I don't know about Twitter or Facebook, because I don't often go on those sites, but I could access YouTube through my phone and it ran at a decent pace (though I never tried it with the computer). With Google Docs, I could only access the files that friends shared with me, not my own. But China did block a whole bunch of Google's products. As for Japan, the only part of it I'd been to is the Osaka-Kansai airport, and the WiFi there was like an epic fail of itself so I couldn't go on _anything_ that required WiFi there. Unless I was to switch my phone to 3G mode, but that's expensive.  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	10. X: The 800th Paper Crane

_X: The 800th Paper Crane_

The warmth of her brother's apartment greeted SeeU as she walked out into the room, bundled up in a pile of clothes. SeeWoo had taken a day off of work - or school, whatever he was doing over there - to be with SeeU. She had only been there a little while, but she already knew where everything was, and went to her bed, freshly made, and set everything down first before smoothing the bedcovers over again.

"Since yesterday, how many cranes have you folded?" SeeWoo happened to ask her.

"Glad you asked. A hundred fifty." SeeU smiled. "Well, a hundred fifty-one, if you count the one I folded for the mental guy."

"The mental guy?" SeeWoo repeated, his brow creasing. "What mental guy?"

"You know, he was right next to me..."

"I was looking at you the whole time," SeeWoo confessed. "I didn't pay attention to anybody else, except for maybe the nurse, because she made me stand there for so long while she went through all the files and made me sign a contract and everything."

"Oh."

SeeWoo nudged his sister lightly, causing her to fall onto the bed and into a rack of coughs. He clapped her gently on the back while he swiftly whisked off her clothes and, the next thing SeeU knew, she was in the bed with sheets laid warmly over her. SeeWoo leaned over her, a lock of his blonde hair falling over his left eye, his knee pressing gently on SeeU's sheet-covered belly. He was grinning. "So do you have an affection for him?"

"What did you do that for?" SeeU complained evasively, rubbing her lower back, where it had hurt when she flopped onto the bed.

"Aha! So you do like him. You're avoiding to talk about him."

"No, I'm just interested in him."

"Infatuation," SeeWoo teased. He nudged her pointedly again.

SeeU sighed. "Okay. So he has overgrown short blue hair and blue eyes. He just sits there most of the time staring at the ceiling. Happy?"

"Sounds like someone I know."

"Who is not me," SeeU supplied. "I've been sitting around lately, but I don't have blue hair."

"No, I mean really, it sounds like someone I know." SeeWoo frowned. "He was with Luka most of the time, but they broke up and he went with Meiko, but Luka never really faded from his mind, so..."

SeeU must have had an evident look of confusion on her face, because SeeWoo began all over again. "Luka is an independent engineer who works closely with us, and Meiko is some pretty girl from some shop boutique or whatever. Anyway, I...forgot his name. It was...Kaiko? Kaika? Taito? Nigaito?"

"The first two were girls' names," SeeU said helpfully.

"I just noticed. Anyway, he was always a rash driver. Car crash. Concussion. Hospital. I don't know what happened to him..."

"Oh," SeeU said again, and lapsed into silence. After a while, she added, "I used up all the pieces of paper you gave me - that's why I didn't fold more."

"I'd figured so. I have some copy paper in case you're interested." SeeWoo went to rummage in the space behind the bookcase. He resurfaced covered with dust but holding a batch of printing paper and paper that had already been printed on. "I also have the letters you sent to me when I was here and you were in South Korea... In case you want some memories with your spiritually-referenced cranes."

SeeU took the paper from her brother's outstretched hands. "I'd like that, thank you. What did I write anyway?"

"Let's see..." SeeWoo got up and went to a particular nook on the bookcase. It was near the top, stuffed full with old and new paper alike. "I still have the project you made when you were five, if you're interested, when you gave it to me as a keepsake for me to never forget you. It was tacked up on the wall for some time, but then it began to become flimsy and sun-bleached, so I put it away. Anyway, here's one..." He cleared his throat and began to read. "'_January 12, 2008. Dear SeeWoo, I know it's only a month but I already miss you. I started to miss you the moment you left. I suck at letters, sorry, even though I'm already fourteen, I just can't get used to writing letters. It's your... eighteenth... birthday, right? Well, silly me. It was on the first of January, how could I possibly forget that?_

"'_So... even though it's a little early, how's it going? I know that you make friends fairly quickly. Do you have any friends at the university? Are you just taking the "common" courses right now, or have you already gotten to studying architecture? I never realized I talk and ask you a lot of things until you leave, sorry...'_ And you drew a face right here. It looks like an equal sign, an underscore, another equal sign, and an apostrophe," SeeWoo said.

"Is that it?" SeeU asked, blushing a little now at how young and naive she sounded.

"No. But it's still fairly short. '_You should be still wearing the jade necklace I bought and gave you with my own money for your early-birthday present and the birthdays that come after, because I can't visit until I'm eighteen (or almost eighteen) and when you're twenty-two or twenty-one, it depends on the time. Anyway, it's four years. When that happens, I'll be in eleventh or twelfth grade, but I'd probably be in twelfth grade because Mom said that she'd talk to the teacher for me to skip a grade. I might even be in college, though I'm really not planning to go, because I just don't have an aim in life like you. What do you think I should do? Love, your sister, SeeU.'_ And then it ends." SeeWoo chuckled. "Do you have an aim in life now?"

"No, but I've been taking a lot of college prep courses. Give me that, I'm going to fold cranes while you read the rest."

"Alright." SeeWoo dug up another one. "'_February 13, 2008. Dear SeeWoo, Love is in the air! Tomorrow will be Valentine's Day (in the "western" countries, anyway). Still, we're holding a little mock celebration, and a lot of Kpop songs have hearts and pink and red and cards in mind now. What about you? Do you like anybody special? You know that I don't. Not yet, though. So stop teasing._

"'_I got your last letter! It was on January 31st, I believe. But I was so happy! Seriously, though, SeeWoo? You're not taking any courses? I hope you're teasing there now, because I'd hate to think that my big brother - the one I've always looked up to - hangs around with a bunch of bums, drinking and smoking and getting tattoos and piercings. Nuh-uh. As long as your little sister is alive, she will not let you do any of that. If I ever get to visit Japan and I find you with so much as ONE mark inked on you, or ONE earring, I WILL DEMAND A REFUND. Oh dear, that doesn't make sense, does it? Anyway, just answer that question seriously._

"'_Wait, so your friend is named-'_ Bingo!" SeeWoo suddenly yelled, not bothering to finish reading the sentence. SeeU, by this time, was just finishing her third crane (her count of cranes already finished amounted up to 752 paper cranes) and she jumped in surprise.

"What, SeeWoo?"

"The car driver dude! He's Kaito! Kaito Shion!"

"Oh," SeeU said mildly, stringing up the third crane. _753._ "I totally knew that."

"..."

"..."

"Seriously?" SeeWoo sighed. "Okay, back to the letter. '_Wait, so your friend is named Kaito? Well, it reminds me of the Kaito guy in Mermaid Melody, you know, the spiky-orange-haired guy who is a surfer? That Kaito is a jerk. He doesn't deserve Lucia, and Lucia should totally dump him, except she's just so naive and I get SO PISSED OFF at both of them sometimes. Sometimes it's just Lucia that I'm frustrated at, sometimes it's Kaito, and sometimes it's both of them at once. Does this Kaito have orange hair, and is he a jerk? Sorry, I guess you don't know what Mermaid Melody is about. I'll explain to you next time._

"'_I'm writing a lot today! I'm starting to get the hang of writing letters~ Not that we don't write to pen-pals all the way across the ocean every day, of course. That and writing to you. Well, only I do. My pen-pal is... I can't remember his name. It's Al or something. That's it. Albert Eberhardt__*****__, except he just wants to be called Big Al. He lives in California but he's from New York City. Well, he's German, but he says that his great-great-grandparents immigrated to America or something. And then he was talking about the Statue of Liberty. I'll tell you more about him in the next letter as well. Love, SeeU.'_"

SeeU finished her 760th paper crane and strung it up. "I said that? I don't remember..."

"You don't remember a lot of things." SeeWoo sat down next to SeeU, dumping a whole pile of paper on her lap. "There, those are the letters. It makes me nostalgic just reading them -"

The phone rang shrilly in the kitchen.

SeeWoo frowned. "I'll be right back," he said.

* * *

He came back after a half-hour bout of shocked yelling and whispers, his face ashen, when SeeU was just finishing her 798th crane.

"You were right," SeeWoo said, kneeling next to SeeU.

SeeU wasn't the most sensitive person in the world, but she knew when something was wrong. "What happened?"

"The guy next to you. He was Kaito."

"So...?"

"Kaito... died," SeeWoo said hoarsely. "Galaco as well."

* * *

She was numb.

Numb. Her body stopped its pneumonic shaking. The birds stopped calling. The cars stopped roaring. If but a moment, that happened. SeeWoo just looked quietly at her, then to the outside, blinking back his tears.

Kaito and Galaco died on the same day.

That _could not_ be possible. They could die on the same day, sure, fine, but they _could not _be dead. How could...?

As it turned out, Kaito had passed away simply, quietly, without as much as an eye-blinking. Galaco had a much more dramatic death - to the consequence of the pain of love and suicide. Still, they were deaths just the same. The deaths of people who SeeU had gradually developed a slight attachment for. Ripping away that attachment hurt.

SeeU had never known someone who had died before. Her four grandparents, sure; but she was so young when all of them died, she didn't remember any of them, except for her maternal grandfather, and he had been far from kindly to her. Would it be bad to say, but at his funeral, she was wickedly glad she didn't have to hear his old man's protests and objections. It felt evil. She was ridiculously glad the entire day.

SeeU felt the burn of tears first when her nose felt the tingling, and then her eyes burned. She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip. _I won't cry. No, I'm not going to cry! Think about SpongeBob Squarepants dancing the hula with Patrick!_ But how wrong it was, to be glad at another's passing. How terrible, how sinful. She hated that feeling of vulnerability.

Her tears came rushing forth, and it was took all of SeeU's control to not let them overflow. Her (receding) pneumonia wasn't helping. Soon she was violently gulping and gasping, and coughing. A tear dripped down her nose onto the bedsheets, and that was when the thread broke and a river fell. Soon, though, the tears faded to just sniffles and hiccups, but SeeU was still shaking. Death, she found, scared her. She didn't want to be scared. But scared she was. Why was it that she hardly knew both Kaito and Galaco, but was crying for them? Wishing for them to be happy and not get into such situations after they were reborn?

_Why?_

"Why did they die?" SeeU whispered, looking down at her hands. "Why did they have to? Why couldn't they just... _live_?"

SeeWoo gave a start, as if he'd just remembered that she was there. "SeeU... I... don't know," he said sadly. Instead of laughing and saying it was a strange, childish question as most would say, he just agreed, reached over and hugged her. They rocked back and forth for some time, and it was almost like transporting back to her childhood. She had just scraped a knee, twisted her ankle, and sprained her wrist. SeeWoo was the only one there, and he took band-aids and stuck them haphazardly onto her wounds, then comforted her, rubbed her back, whispered it was okay over and over, and comforted her again until Mother came home and took a good look at her injuries.

SeeU folded the 799th and 800th crane just for them, dedicated to them. Even though Kaito and Galaco probably didn't have any connections to each other, she placed them together anyway, along with the thirteenth crane.

* * *

*** - TROLOL my name for Big Al. His "real" name, because "Big Al" sounds like a nickname. Do you spot LASC in the workings here? ;)**

**So... that's it. I have to incorporate death in my stories.  
**

**Though just saying that, I feel like writing some snippets for one of my stories in plotbunny stage. It's MikuLuka. I don't know.  
**

**As for the liekzomgseewoosbdayizonda1st ?! thing, I made that up. Because I made (implied) SeeWoo older than SeeU, it'd be sort of odd for her to share the same birthday as him, so I altered it slightly.  
**

**Thank you for reading/reviewing!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	11. XI: The 900th Paper Crane

_XI: The 900th Paper Crane_

SeeU recalled the day in the hospital when she folded the 100th paper crane. _900 more,_ she'd thought. Now, the circumstances were quite the opposite - almost.

A little less than two weeks or so had passed in mourning while SeeU healed from her pneumonia and silently paid her respects to Galaco and Kaito in her mind. Now she had begun again to fold cranes again. It was refreshing, almost as if she was beginning anew. (Her pneumonia had almost faded away, but then a fresh cold brought it on again, which was pretty annoying but at least gave her a cause to continue folding.) SeeU emailed Gumi some, talked to Gumi on the phone some. She had gotten some pictures of the Hamarikyu Gardens off of the Internet. While they didn't look too beautiful to SeeU from that, since it was winter and the first sheets of snow layered themselves on the ground of Tokyo, they did look peaceful, but _cold_. Temperature-cold, not feeling-cold. She made a mental note to visit SeeWoo in the summer, although her vacation in Japan had been extended considerably, to early January.

Speaking of SeeWoo, the moment Mayu heard that SeeWoo was attending Galaco's funeral ceremony, she detached herself from him. It was no surprise that Mayu had been looking for someone else; SeeWoo could have sworn she was searching for a good partner on Craiglist while working. Still, he was healing quickly. Not that SeeU was complaining, of course. She liked Luka much better than either Mayu or Galaco.

Meanwhile, the 900th paper crane was coming nearer with each fold; so was her goal of a thousand. SeeU's spirits had raised, and then soared considerably.

She could go out on daily walks now, go to restaurants and other outdoor places close to home. It was refreshing. She had forgotten how good it was to stand outside on a snowy winter day, watch everything go by, and sometimes even slip and slide on the ice.

SeeU was in an arts-and-crafts store now with SeeWoo. They had pretty much run out of foldable free-use paper, because after reading some of the letters SeeU and SeeWoo had both admitted that they both didn't want to seem them folded, with all the memories within, so she only folded one of her letters. Now SeeU wandered aimlessly around the place.

"Come on!" SeeWoo waved her over. With all the tinsel and that spicy, sharp perfume in the place, this store was festive. Huge rolls of wrapping paper and suitable gifts dominated most of the shelves now, but still some were dedicated to everyday use, in the back. SeeU took a mental inventory of all the things that there still was. Yarn, picture frames, cards (a huge portion of which were dedicated to holidays such as Christmas), construction paper, watercolor paper, easel boards, oil painting canvases, oil paints, watercolor paints, colored pencils, sketching pencils, origami paper, origami how-to books...the list was still, to say the least, endless. SeeU was dazzled by it all.

SeeWoo stood right next to the origami stuffs section. He held out gold and silver metallic paper, precut into perfect, standard origami squares - about one-and-a-half decimeters all around. "For your nine-hundredth and thousandth paper crane," he said. "And this..." He turned and took some regular precut origami squares, the thin, tissuey type. "We can use that for the one hundred fifty cranes you have to fold to let the gods grant you a wish!" For SeeU had folded fifty more that night.

"Are you sure?" SeeU asked. "The packet of regular origami is expensive...One package - which contains fifty origami squares, if I might add - costs almost 3,000 yen, which is about almost 38,000 won, which is..." She could have gone on longer if SeeWoo stopped her.

"Yes, but we can divide each square into fourths, which would give us two hundred, which is more than enough. They're going to be tiny, though."

"Three thousand yen could sustain us both for a breakfast, lunch, and dinner takeout meal," SeeU said.

"Yes, but I work better with homecooked. Besides, my fridge is stocked. Oh, and we're getting the gold and silver metallic paper, right?"

"There's some right in here." SeeU peered into the package.

"That's awesome. Let's go."

* * *

So this was why SeeU sat on the kitchen table now, being well enough to be away from the bed. She still needed to take her breathing therapy every day, but that was coming along well. Luka had taken to coming over to SeeWoo's apartment, though she had a huge house to herself. Between learning cooking lessons from Luka and keeping up with Luka's lively - but often deeply expressed - chatter, SeeU's time for folding cranes waned. She was only on her 890th paper crane a few days later, which was a Saturday.

"It's your birthday tomorrow, I've heard from your brother," Luka said one day, that nearly made SeeU drop her crane.

"I...forgot," she replied.

"By your nature, I would guess you did." Luka smiled. "Come on, finish that crane, and we'll see if we can't do something about your birthday."

* * *

SeeU had had very little experience in cooking Luka's style of a cake, but she tried her best anyway. _If you cook it yourself,_ Luka had said, _it'd taste so much better, because it's your own sweet accomplishment._ Which pretty much meant, _Don't mess up, or else it'd taste terrible._ Still, SeeU couldn't help but be a little clumsy when handling kitchen tools.

Luka acted like a mother to SeeU, always patient, teaching her each step. She seemed to enjoy doing this, too. When SeeU thought about that when she was manipulating (or trying to) the egg beater to make the whipped cream stiff, something popped out at her. When SeeWoo and Luka were in the same room, there seemed to be an extra spark between them, a happy secret that they were dying to share...but not yet. SeeU was terrible at sighting love, but she knew a good couple when she saw one. And Luka was so different from both Galaco and Mayu. It suddenly came to her that SeeU would love to have Luka as her sister-in-law. And if SeeWoo and Luka got together, SeeU would be an aunt to their lovely babies-...

Immediately she blushed. _What am I thinking?_

A hand reached out and switched off the eggbeater just when SeeU was about to reprimand herself for meddling again. SeeU suddenly realized that Luka was right next to her.

"SeeU," Luka said, "you almost turned the whipped cream into butter." Although her tone was scolding, Luka was smiling good-naturedly.

"Sorry," SeeU said, blushing harder.

Luka laughed gently. "Something on your mind lately? A boy, perhaps?"

"_What_-? N-no!" SeeU imagined what would happen if she told Luka what she had just thought about SeeWoo and Luka. Maybe Gumi could have said that (though not without some awkward hesitation), but SeeU was too shy to even start about this subject.

Luka patted her arm. "That's okay, SeeU. I have some plastic paper here," she went on, explaining how SeeU was to cover the whipped cream bowl (which had been prefrozen in the fridge) and keep it cold for a while. "We'll be needing it in a while."

* * *

It was SeeU's birthday. The cake tasted great, and she had folded her 899th crane before this. Now all she had to do was fold her 900th, but for some reason she knew that right now was not the time.

After eating the cake, SeeWoo coughed to get SeeU and Luka's attention. "I have an announcement to make."

SeeU clapped to stir the awkward atmosphere that followed. SeeWoo never really needed to make "announcements;" he just blurted out what he had to say - usually. If he had to make an announcement, then it must be really important, though SeeU couldn't possibly guess what. Was it because her pneumonia was lifting?

"I... um... _Ugh._"

"Are you sure you don't have a cold, SeeWoo?" Luka asked worriedly while thumping him on the back.

"No, I'm fine. Just that my words are sticking in my throat lately... okay. Here goes. Um, Luka, stay right here. I'm going to try to..." He fished for something in his pockets, leaving the two women in the room utterly bewildered. "Ah, okay. Basically..." He clumsily got onto his knee. "No, Luka, don't help me. I mean, _do_ help me - ugh! Whatever! So..."

_Was he planning this? _SeeU mouthed to Luka, wondering if it was a joke. SeeWoo was _never_ like this. Well, he was, once, when he was asking a girl if she could be his and SeeU's mommy while Mother was gone on a business trip, but...

Luka shrugged in response, looking perplexed. _I don't know either,_ the shrug seemed to say.

SeeWoo took out a small box decorated with a ribbon and held it in front of him. He frowned. "I'm not sure if the rules of doing this are written in stone, but I'll try not to break any of those rules today. So... uh... basically, Luka, will you be my wife?"

There was a completely awkward silence.

_He never proposed before,_ SeeU thought vaguely. _SeeWoo's good at everything he practiced._

"I mean, like, we don't, like, have to, like, do any randomstuffsoonand, like, we don't need to" - SeeWoo took a huge breath - "like, haveaweddingsoonbut I'd, like, you know..."

"SeeWoo," Luka said slowly, "but I'm graduated and you're not. A marriage... and kids..."

"I- I didn't say we had to have kids!" He was blushing. "In fact, I didn't say we had to marry soon, just... what about engagement?" _And you can always say yes,_ the atmosphere around SeeU's older brother seemed to hint.

"SeeWoo," SeeU added, "sorry to disappoint, you've only known her as a close friend for... like..."

"I told you about Kaito and everything," SeeWoo supported. "We've known each other for some time, about the same length of time as I knew Gakupo. Three years, maybe."

"Yes, but isn't that a little rash?"

Luka and SeeWoo looked at each other.

"Um..." SeeWoo arched an eyebrow uncertainly. "Is... that... good or bad?"

"I-it's not like I'm interfering or anything!" protested SeeU. "You can do whatever you like! It's just that I thought you only knew Luka for, like, two seconds... But if you've got history with her or anything, then that's okay! N-n-not _that_ kind of history," she added when SeeWoo and Luka exchanged odd glances. "Um... yeah."

"I was thinking, we get engaged," SeeWoo suggested. "You know what? We could be engaged for five years. I'll marry you when I'm like twenty-five. Or -six."

Luka laughed, then hugged him. "What makes you think I'll say no, SeeWoo?"

"I'll leave you guys alone," SeeU said, and left smiling to herself.

* * *

When Luka came to SeeU's room, she wore a platinum band on the slim ring finger of her left hand. SeeU had folded her 900th crane, and this she thrust into Luka's hands.

"Here," SeeU suggested. "String it up yourself. It's dedicated to you two, after all."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Luka took a seat next to SeeU. "We've planned it out. We won't marry until he's finished with his basic architectural courses, and then if he wishes to expand, then he will, I won't protest. I'll be doing my own work. We won't be having any children until he's older and got a steady job. Oh, and we can break our engagement anywhere in between if we don't feel it's working out. As for the marriage, I don't exactly know _when_ we're going to marry, and I don't think normal engagements last more than a year or so, but we're both willing to give it a try."

"That sounds like a plan."

Luka tied the knot under the 900th paper crane. "It is," she answered, and the smile was enough for SeeU to know that her day had just been brightened.

* * *

**I'm not particularly happy with this chapter. Not that it's badly written or anything; it's the clash of events. Marriage, at SeeWoo's age? Yes, his personality here is suited for rash decisions, but currently I'm still facepalming myself for thinking of such a tactless way of writing up this chapter. I actually thought of rewriting it - which I probably will, and change all the events - but in the meantime, you'll have to be happy with this ugh.  
**

**I also need some clarification on some information that I got from the Net that has nothing to do with this story. Did Hangeng... _quit_... from Super Junior... in 2009? D:  
**

**I just realized that I didn't thank the reviewers of chapters 8, 9, and 10. HOW COULD I FORGET?! Here goes...  
Thank you to Guest, Troubled Windchimes x3, Katize Luka x3, Stargazing Miracle, Ten-Faced x3, Azn-Rinny, ownitlikeaboss x3, Honeycloud of RiverClan x3, and last but not least, another Guest. :)  
Thank you to those who read and/or reviewed this chapter as well~  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	12. XII: The 950th Paper Crane

_XII: The 950th Paper Crane_

Life had, more or less, become normal again. Luka and SeeWoo were engaged, Mayu had retreated into the background, the throbbing memory of Galaco - and Kaito - had faded into a softly colored background. Luka, between working, studying, and helping, kept SeeU entertained while SeeU herself was trying to learn how to make sense of the French language. SeeU's cranes were coming along nicely.

If there was ever a spirit for pneumonia, it was certainly a moody one. Sometimes it'd be a mellow soul and SeeU would feel well enough for a walk, but sometimes it left her body racking with the coughs, the sheets of her bed soaked through with sweat.

SeeU's flow of cranes folded had halted, and began again, but slowed to the soft trickle of milk through a small slitted opening. It wasn't gushing water anymore. Partially, again, because of Luka, but now it was also because of the huge French dictionary beside her. She'd learn to speak English smoothly next. Often, SeeU would take a pen and scrawl a few French words onto a piece of paper, quickly fold a crane out of it, and try to remember what she had written and the meaning of that. Then she would write that on another piece of paper, unfold the crane, and compare the crane's writing and the writing on the other piece of paper. If it was wrong, she'd do it over and over until she was sure she got it right, folding and unfolding. At last when she was satisfied, she would fold the crane again and toss it into a little pile for stringing up. This method was quite useful and efficient, although it wore the paper a little.

The big problem SeeU had was with her grammar. She understood that French usually used the subject-verb-object type of sentence, instead of subject-object-verb, the type of sentence she was used to. Korean, Japanese, Hindi... These all used the subject-object-verb type of sentence. Even Mandarin Chinese used it sometimes. SeeU wasn't sure if there was a name for that or not, but it seemed a lot like passive-active sentences.

Still, SeeU kept forgetting the sentence structure generally was subject-verb-object, and always made mistakes on that.

On a day when the spirit of pneumonia was in a good mood, she was writing a sentence on what would be her 950th paper crane if she wouldn't give up on it and toss it into the trash before starting over. After learning from a number of websites that yes, _S'il vous plaît _did mean "please," SeeU had begun to use that in her sentences. _S'il vous plaît manger ce!_*****

SeeU giggled, imagining an exasperated waiter at a restaurant to a couple who was very picky about their food. It would help if the restaurant and the waiter was French, too, because the phrase she wrote was French. And the waiter would be kind of surprised that these people would eat so much. Or maybe it was a new mother with a toddler who simply didn't want to be weaned off of its feed of breast milk. But was _s'il vous plaît _supposed to imply politeness? She didn't know. She'd have to get tutored professionally soon. But then, she learned Japanese and some Chinese by herself, sitting at the computer for hours on end, being frustrated with _katakana_, _hiragana_, and _kanji_ and the Hanzi.

_Bonjour, je m'appelle SeeU!_******

This didn't make any sense from the phrase that was above it, but SeeU just wanted to write random things as they popped into her head.

_J'aime les pomme-de-terres. Je n'aime pas les broccoli._

"How do you say, 'I would like to visit France someday'?" SeeU mumbled to herself. She glanced around the room, and then her eyes fell onto SeeWoo's laptop. SeeWoo and Luka were both out to do some architectural stuff, so that meant that SeeU could use the laptop for a while. She crawled over, pulled the laptop next to her bed, and, curled up in the sheets, she opened up Google Translate.

What a shame. Google Translate was not the best translator to turn to, and not a very accurate teacher, but that was all she currently could rely on.

"'I would like to visit France one day!'" SeeU typed in the little box. After about two seconds, the gray section to the right read _Je veux aller en France un jour!_

"So... _Je veux aller en France un jour_?" That was what SeeU wrote down. "I'll have to ask someone if that's grammatically correct later."

She folded the 950th crane.

It turned out that SeeU couldn't quite remember any of the sentences except _J'aime les pomme-de-terres_ and _Bonjour, je m'appelle SeeU_. So the 950th crane was folded, over and over again, for about four or five times, before SeeU could fully remember all of the sentences again. Right after her final re-fold of the 950th paper crane, SeeWoo and Luka arrived back and they both turned out to be going to Paris, France around November 2013 to study the architectural designs of the Eiffel Tower. Therefore, they had to be fluent in French - or at least know minimal French to get by on the streets - in about a year.

"We'll learn with you," SeeWoo said, laughing, when a duly frustrated SeeU told them why she gave a start at the news. "So... the 950th crane?"

SeeU sighed. "For your information, I already folded the 950th crane before you came back."

* * *

**My utter gratitude goes to Katize Luka for her help on some of these sentences. Thank you so much~  
**

**Thanks to the following reviewers- Ten-Faced, Katize Luka, Troubled Windchimes, yiseunggi, Honeycloud of Riverclan, ownitlikeaboss, and, uh... i.m. x12. **

**Dear i.m. : At the moment, I'm too lazy to remove the spamming reviews, but please don't do this again. Thank you.  
**

**And now, a fourth thank you for reading/reviewing!  
**

**_EDIT!:_ I forgot to do the asterisks! (le gasp!)  
**

**Kay so, doing it quickly:  
**

*** - "Please eat!"  
**

**** - "Hello, my name is SeeU!"  
**

**"_J'aime les pomme-de-terres; Je n'aime pas les broccoli"_ means "I like potatoes; I don't like broccoli." Again, a big thank you to Katize Luka for the help~!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	13. XIII: The 998th Paper Crane

_XIII: The 998th Paper Crane_

So she was getting closer to her goal. Her cranes were slowly accumulating, although SeeU had slowly begun to slack. It always happened like this. She was very persistent in the middle, but once the feat neared the end, SeeU's work began to dwindle and taper, and in sudden bouts of uncertainty she was not sure if she could reach a thousand paper cranes at the rate she was going now.

_I used to be folding a hundred cranes a day back in the hospital,_ SeeU recalled with a laugh. Still, she was finding less and less time.

Besides, pneumonia had begun to become easy on her. SeeU would take daily walks now, and maybe even a small lunch outside in one of her brother's favorite fast food restaurants which wasn't McDonald's. Although, try as she might, pneumonia was never really gone completely from the picture.

"At least you're not coughing up blood anymore," SeeWoo had said.

Well, that much of it was true.

* * *

The next day was a Wednesday. SeeU hadn't folded any cranes on Tuesday, and only a few on Monday, so her paper crane count was up to 977. _Twenty-three more to go,_ she encouraged herself. _You have a lot of time. Your vacation has been extended, and twenty-three paper cranes should be done in a snap._ There were just those moments that she was too lazy to do anything, and so she just stayed around, reading, discovering. There was _Gonghuin _by Yeo-ok on the shelf (SeeU had been assigned this in school a couple of times, but never really caught onto the meaning), as well as a copy of _Please Look After Mom_ by Kyung-Sook Shin. Several other older, dusty books sat peacefully there.

Today she decided to tackle _Gonghuin_ once and for all, and determinedly pulled the book off the shelf. It was immersing, but not long SeeU found herself hunting for other things to do.

Things such as folding, for instance.

With a grumpy sigh, SeeU put _Gonghuin_ back in its original place and sat down. "Twenty-three cranes. Alright. I CAN DO THIS."

Fold, fold, fold, fold, smooth, fold, fold, fold.

After a while, the silence was getting suffocating. So as she worked, SeeU talked to herself. "Okay, so once I get back, I'll have to do extra work because I spent - or will spend - two months here, not doing any work. College work, that is. So... _ugh_." She couldn't help but remember all the college responsibility. "But then, there's the other birthday party. I wonder what they're going to do this year? … Not that I haven't already gotten one, but Gumi said I'd get one, so - _this is getting too complicated._ Anyway," she rambled on, reaching for the fourth piece of paper, "I think I'd like to be an illustrator. For books. I'll have to do more research on what I'm supposed to do, though.

"Or a teacher. That's fine, too. There's a nice school near my house that I can send requests to for a job. But then, I don't know how long I'd have to study for that..."

* * *

_She was close._

_So close._

* * *

… "I - hate - tough - paper!"

* * *

Outside, the sky had begun to dip into its old sunset shades again. What a shame - it was only five-thirty. Winter was moody like that. The sky was made of beautiful pastel colours, lighthearted blue at the very top, fading down to sea green, pale gray, pastel orange, to deep bronze. The... what was it called? Mount Takao? Whatever it was, it was a hard, erect lump of opaque darkness in the distance, which added sculpt and feature to the liquid, shapeless sunset. The buildings were beginning to be engulfed in darkness as well, the cold substance racing to swallow them. Looking at this, SeeU was suddenly reminded of Daegu.

_It's been pretty long..._ She exhaled. If you could call a few weeks or so "long".

She hadn't listened to Kpop for some time.

SeeU didn't know why she thought that. It was a random thought, and had only flitted across her mind just now. She hadn't thought about it before, actually.

"I'm hooooome~!" SeeU could hear SeeWoo call, with a bang and a clang, followed by, "_Ow!_"

"Welcome home, idiot brother!"

"..."

"Where's Luka?"

"She has her own home. Yeah, it's an apartment. What are you doing?"

"I'm on my... actually," SeeU said in surprise, "I just finished my 998th crane."

"You're having fun with it!"

"Kind of." She shrugged. "I still think you only knew Luka for two seconds..."

SeeWoo reached over and ruffled her hair. "Are you... mad about that?"

"No, it's just that you make too many decisions," SeeU replied, elbowing him. She had to grin. She wasn't upset over it, not really; she'd thought about this before. It was just odd to think that her brother was engaged, and probably would be for five years before he actually would marry Luka. _His friends would love this._

"Hey," SeeU added offhandedly, "you wouldn't complain if I told your friends that you're engaged with a woman who's possibly older than you, right?"

"N-n - _YES!_ I WOULD COMPLAIN!"

"Think about it~"

Blushing, SeeWoo walked out of the room.

* * *

SeeU sat on her bed. Yes, it was just a little past five-forty. She liked to think in bed, though. Besides, it was not like she would fall asleep anytime soon even if she tried.

_I'll fold the two last cranes sometime this day. Yes, I will!_

Her chest hurt again. SeeU suddenly felt tired. Her breathing became rapid and shallow, the way it was when she was first diagnosed with pneumonia.

It wasn't that Tokyo wasn't already cold, but SeeU felt colder... if that was possible. Her spine tingled ominously, and this was when she decided to lie down for a while. Clutching the sheets, she wondered what exactly was wrong with her.

The wheel of pneumonia had begun turning again, cycling to the hour of climax.

* * *

**I was dreaming up the ending for this story and suddenly a fierce nostalgia enveloped me. So I'll put off thinking about the ending for now. I feel too sad when I start thinking of it. D:  
I have to start a new story soon. Now that I think of it, I envy those people who have like two stories they're juggling. Does anyone want to do a collab story with me? Though, I have a few ideas. I'm just not as interested in publishing them as I _would_ be. And now, I have to stop talking about this, because my sister is currently laying on the ground, throwing something close to a tantrum, and being unreasonable.  
**

**Thanks to the reviewers for the last chapter- Troubled Windchimes, Katize Luka, Ten-Faced, pants (_pants_?), and ownitlikeaboss. Thank you to those who reviewed this chapter as well!  
**

**~Unyielding Wish  
**


	14. XIV: The Thousandth Paper Crane

_XIV: The Thousandth Paper Crane_

Never in her life, probably, had SeeU ever felt such chagrin at herself.

Never in her life, probably, had SeeU ever felt worse than this.

_I thought the worst was past,_ she thought, as her stomach sent up unpleasant spasms. … _Apparently not._

Time was spiraling out of her grasp. The outside became hazy and unreal and cold. Through half-closed lids, SeeU could see in her suddenly-grainy vision that darkness had begun to spread over Tokyo. The lovely sleepiness had drifted down yet again, and its presence was a beautiful, thin blanket of comfort, albeit deadly. Its trance was soft and gentle as the snowflakes that had begun to fall outside, wet and warm and mild as they hit earth. All SeeU had to do was to -

_ARGH!_

Retching, SeeU quickly got onto her hands and knees. Her palms were clammy and something sent chilly spasms crawling all over her body. "SeeWoo," she screamed. "Get - get something I could puke in!"

SeeWoo immediately came running. "SeeU -"

"Do you have a bucket? A bin?"

"Well, yes. Um, are you sure-"

"Go! Please! Sorry!"

SeeWoo ran out of the room to find the bucket.

SeeU's chest heaved with the shuddering breaths she took. _Wonderful,_ she thought, annoyed. _I'm just about to recover and I get - _this_._

She coughed and reached for a piece of paper. While she was waiting, she might as well fold her 999th crane. Simple goal. And she'd go on to a thousand if she felt like it in her mood swings that accompanied the pneumonia. Maybe there really were gods, who could be appeased, with her thousand paper cranes as a gift.

With clumsy fingers, SeeU managed to get through the folds, but just barely. Twice she messed up. Her tired eyes gave her nothing better but a blurred, painful vision. Halfway into it, her crane turned out sloppy and not neat at all, unlike the rest of the cranes which sat strung up beside her bed. Each fold that turned out lopsided, SeeU promised herself that the next fold would be better - but it wasn't. It never was. And so, folding the 999th crane, each fold was executed faster than the other - a chase that involved only SeeU herself.

And then, finishing the 999th crane and tossing it aside, SeeU found a pressing at the front of her throat that meant only one thing: she could no longer hold it in.

"SeeWoo! I -"

Miracle of miracles -

SeeWoo came rushing in, with a bucket in his hands...

"Here," he gasped, "it's okay if you vomit somewhere else, SeeU, I can always clean it up -"

The cold, empty bottom of the bin stared up at SeeU, as her body shook and her throat constricted -

And then, SeeU was brushing a chunk of her hair out of her face, swallowing her saliva and coughing up the last bits of what her stomach had rejected.

The bitter aroma of vomit filled the air.

Panting slightly, SeeWoo smiled up at his sister. "That wasn't hard, was it?"

SeeU shook her head, swallowing again, unable to reply. After a few moments, she answered hoarsely, "Don't take it away yet. I might throw up some more."

Now that she took a look at her brother, she could see that he had apparently wrestled with something while getting the bucket. His hair was messed up, and there was a streak of dust down his cheek. His fingertips were powdered palely with a brick red.

"What _happened_ to you?" she asked, ignoring her growing stomach pain and fluttery breaths.

"Oh?" SeeWoo touched the smear of gray that, SeeU had to admit, accentuated his cheekbones. "Oh... the bucket turned out to be under the sink, so I had to bat away the plumbing parts and all the wires to get to it. I'll have to scrub it later; it's almost rusting. The surface is flaky. There were a few spiders and cobwebs in there, too, so I'll have to get them out." He sounded perfectly normal to SeeU, who admittedly had a bad case of arachnophobia.

"But, SeeU," SeeWoo added, "you look like _you're_ the one who's supposedly to be targeted with this question."

"I -"

Before she could respond with a full-fledged explanation, her stomach turned again, and SeeU leaned over the bucket. A few more sharp splashes to the bucket pierced the silence in the room.

"Sorry," SeeU said. "My stomach seems to be a little on edge today."

"I'll dump it; it's nearly full," SeeWoo offered, and hurried out with the bucket.

SeeU slowly lay down on the bed again. Gazing up at the ceiling, SeeU's mind began to wander. _How? Why? Where?_ And where _did_ she contract pneumonia? SeeU reflected to that night in Daegu, where she found the shivers unnerving. Maybe... Daegu? The taxi? It was somewhere in the airport, then, if the shivers had just been the announcement of a cold.

SeeU reached for the paper for the thousandth paper crane. Funny; she expected to be extremely excited at the moment, but in truth she was just quite serene. A spur-of-the-moment idea.

Just as she was about to do the first fold that would begin the thousandth paper crane, a sharp pain made her cringe and drop the paper.

* * *

The pangs continued. SeeU seriously needed somewhere to _go_, but her pride was unbending and she didn't want to bother SeeWoo again with her needs. The sound of sloshing, and then water hitting something metal signified that SeeWoo was washing the bucket.

SeeU crept under the covers, curling up into a ball with her stomach resting on her thighs. For a few moments, it would calm; and then it would start again. It hurt.

To keep her mind off of it, she began folding, but it was slow, tedious work this time, because each pang made her flinch, and often her hand would do a violent motion and fold the wrong way. So she had to redo a bunch of the folds.

A cough sent shivers down her body.

* * *

The rest of the evening happened in a blur. SeeU remembered that she never exactly completed the crane; she stopped midway. There were brief periods in which she slept, brief periods in which she sleepily aroused herself from her cocoon and then fell into a deep torpor again. She was never quite awake, and only until the strike of midnight did SeeU find herself opening her eyes, wide awake, staring at the ceiling.

SeeU didn't feel any better. In fact, she felt worse. Her sheets were drenched in sweat, her head ached, and her body was sore. Her sheets were kicked off.

In the moonlight, Tokyo was no more familiar. Lights still twinkled. In a city, no light is ever snuffed out, day or night. The same cannot be said, of course, for the suburbs in which SeeU grew up in, but then, this was all a novelty to her. Still.

The moon was hidden by the clouds - or was it just the city's smog? There were a few eerie rays of moonshine here and there, but that was it. SeeU sat up and rubbed her eyes.

She gulped when her throat began to feel unnaturally strange. _I think I'm going to throw up again._

Suddenly, the world seemed dizzy, and it spun all around her, becoming nauseating. SeeU clambered out of bed and desperately groped for something that could resemble a bowl. She'd have to apologize to SeeWoo later.

Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her lungs hurt. And those lungs quivered and gasped for breath.

The dark suddenly seemed ominous.

"SeeWoo!" SeeU was about to call, when she realized that he was right next to her.

That was right. He was on the right. That was why she couldn't find anything. She stumbled to her feet, swaying unsteadily, before dropping back onto her knee and nudging her brother, waiting with the anticipation of a small child to see how he'd respond.

SeeWoo opened a sky blue eye lazily.

"SeeWoo," SeeU whispered. "I'm... scared."

There. She said it.

SeeWoo simply blinked up at her.

_Ugh!_ Well, that was just as well. SeeWoo wasn't _supposed_ to be wide awake in the middle of the night. Just SeeU and her sickness schedule.

"SeeWoo?" SeeU tried again.

This time he made a sleepy noise, like "Uhmmhm," before flipping to his other side.

"SeeWoo!" SeeU spoke forcefully - or as forcefully she could muster. "_Hello_?" She shook him again. "I'm... I'm really sorry, but... I need a place where I need to... you know... _AGH!_" She doubled over, clutching her stomach.

"W-whoa - _WHATNOW _- _SeeU?_" SeeWoo shot up now, on his elbows, his mouth half-open and gaping at SeeU.

"... I'm trying to keep the vomit in."

SeeU could see her brother's body visibly relax. "Nice," he said drily. "What are you doing up at around one o'clock in the midnight?"

SeeU shook her head. "Nevermind." She went back to her own bed. Just talking to her brother instantly soothed her, and she felt that she could go through the rest of the night now.

* * *

SeeU discovered that, no matter how much she tried... _She couldn't sleep._

* * *

SeeU sat up, continuing on where she left off on the thousandth paper crane. It was easier than she'd thought. A few folds here, one there...

And then -

With her heartrate speeding up, SeeU gasped and dropped the crane. Goosebumps prickled up on her flesh, but she felt both hot and cold at the same time. Somehow - somehow -

SeeWoo had woken up and was staring at her.

The room spun dangerously. Now she was in a storybook, she was sure; it was just a bad dream.

_Yes..._

It was just a bad dream.

Any time now, she'd wake up in her bed in southern South Korea, and this would never have happened; SeeWoo would be there, too, and they'd be children again -

Memories flashed by, one by one..

A naive little girl in pigtails running alongside an older boy with wavy blonde hair...

Then an older girl, going into junior high, laughing coyly at her brother's teasing...

Bidding SeeWoo farewell when she started high school, SeeWoo going off to Japan for architecture -

The plane!

Japan -

Dizziness...

_Galaco -_

Why was blood everywhere?

An unnatural force had taken control of SeeU's limbs, and they folded robotically, the thousandth paper crane taking shape faster and faster...

SeeWoo was standing up now, running to SeeU's side, placing a hand on her forehead -

_His hand feels nice,_ SeeU thought deliriously.

And then, the room was spinning again, its colours switched to high definition, and she was looking through a camera, on a school trip to one of the oldest forests on the rims of Seoul, snapping pictures for her family...

The beak of the paper crane, _it had to be smoothed_ -

"SeeU, I'll be right back; I need a cool cloth for your forehead, it's on fire -"

_No, this paper crane has to be perfect -_

Her time was running out, but miraculously she was leaping slowly but steadily through the marshes and drags of this time, walking, then jogging, and then running...

Her mother's face, her father's touch, her friends' laughter -

Growing up -

"_Mommy, this is the first project I made in school!"_

NO -

_WAIT -_

This was unnatural. Why...

SeeU gasped and clutched the sheets for breath. She had coughed up the mucus that was choking her, of course. What... what was with these images, flashing in front of her eyes?

_I'm not going to die!_

Her crane...

SeeWoo came rushing in, his voice somehow thin and high, his face frightened; Luka came following at the heels of him -

_Just one fold, just one fold..._

And the thousandth paper crane -

_It is finished!_

In that moment, SeeU made a wish.

It was easier than she thought it'd be, but she wasn't even sure if it worked. The words weren't even clear to her after she made the wish, or maybe it was that cold, unearthly trance she was in...

Immediately, in the space of a second, SeeU's body relaxed. Her heartbeat slowed. Her fingers loosened their grip on her pillow. SeeU looked up at SeeWoo, to tell him that she was okay, when she realized that he was crying.

_Crying._

Actually crying.

Maybe it wasn't crying, although she could see the tears distinctly in his eyes, and in that awkward moment, SeeU knew not of what to say. Her throat was robbed of words for a moment; speechless, it was. SeeWoo seemed to have seen the scene correctly; he was smiling as he wiped his tears away. With shaking hands, SeeU strung the thousandth paper crane on the tenth and final string, and knotted it. Her ten strings that each bore a hundred cranes were finished. And suddenly, SeeU felt SeeWoo's arms around her.

"It's all right," he whispered. "You're... all right."

Luka knelt down. SeeU could see that she was trying to hide it, but she thought she saw a glisten of a tear in the corner of her eye, too. "Thank... thank goodness you're all right, SeeU." She drew out a slow, relieved breath.

SeeU relaxed in her brother's hug, and the night passed with the three of them talking quietly.

* * *

**Don't worry. The story isn't over yet. There's still three more chapters, and three more vital themes I have to get across...  
**

**So I'm making this Shiroha (SeeRoha?) story for Valentine's Day. I only have one chapter and an askew plot so far. There are four days left, and I really don't want to wait. T_T I think it's been a year since I've been introduced to Vocaloid! I can't measure, though.**

**Okay. Now. Thanks to reviewers Honeycloud of Riverclan, Katize Luka, knight of nights, Troubled Windchimes, Ten-Faced, ownitlikeaboss, and Guest x2 (as I perceive the two Guests are the same person). All of you are epic~ :D**

**Dear Guest: Uhhh. Okay. I can't remember who I told my FanFiction account to in any of my classes, but I'll have fun guessing ;D**

**~Unyielding Wish**


	15. XV: Recovering

_XV: Recovering_

After SeeU had made it over the hill, her healing progress sped up faster and faster. A few more breathing therapies, and a few more visits to Gakupo, and SeeU was back to her healthy self again.

This gave her ample time to explore Tokyo. Whenever she could, she would snag a taxi to somewhere Gumi had recommended. She visited the Hamarikyu gardens first. On some days, SeeWoo would accompany her, or it was Luka, or it was both or none. Snow had been falling in Tokyo, and although it was not like the snow in South Korea, SeeU was content with it. It brought back hundreds of memories.

Really, though, SeeU wasn't much for sightseeing. She often found herself back at the same bookstore or library, browsing for good books on improving her Japanese vocabulary. She knew enough to get around, but not enough to hold a decent, casual conversation with someone on the street.

It took hours to get from one place to another in Tokyo, so for each day that SeeU went out, there was only one destination. Among the places she visited were the Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場）; Koishikawa Korakuen （小石川湖楽園）, which was a lovely garden that was - according to the people she'd met - especially beautiful in the fall, and she did believe them, because of the pictures she'd seen off the Internet; Harajuku （原宿), the focal point for cosplayers; Asakusa （浅草）; Rikugien （六義園）, which was quite similar to the Korakuen... there was also the Tokyo Tower, which somewhat resembled the Eiffel Tower in France, to see.

And of course the New Year in Tokyo. It was impossible to miss _that_. And the fireworks were lovely, too. Watching it, SeeU had suddenly been struck with a loneliness and longing for home, so many years back when she and her brother were still children.

_I've been reflecting a bit too much on my past these days,_SeeU thought wryly.

With this, the days passed by in a whirl. Only too soon SeeU's January flight back to China and Daegu had arrived.

_You know how you want to stall when the day dawns?_

It would take forever to get to Tokyo-Haneda anyway, but still. These were the last few hours she'd get to enjoy with her brother before she'd go on the plane.

Was it possible to be nostalgic about the trip before she even got back to South Korea?

SeeU was beginning to miss her brother already.

"I'll help you pack," Luka volunteered the day before her plane flight, which was at one in the afternoon. There wasn't much to take - except for SeeU's camera, a small rolling suitcase with all of her clothes in it, her paper cranes, and some of the pictures that had been inked out when they visited the photo place the other day. As it was, the packing was completed way too quickly. Luka stood up, brushing off the imaginary dust on herself.

Unable to contain herself, SeeU reached forward and hugged her sister-in-law-to-be. Luka rubbed her back and kissed her on the forehead.

"Visit often," Luka said, her eyes twinkling. "I might move in with SeeWoo... or SeeWoo might move in with me. Soon. Sometime."

"I'll be there for your wedding," SeeU offered, before realizing how awkward that sounded. Luka laughed.

"And I yours. Don't worry, I'm not expecting you to take a husband anytime soon," grinning as SeeU's face morphed into that of confusion and horror. "But..." A mischievous twinkle ascended her eye. "Do you happen to like someone named Oriba?"

"Oriba?" SeeU tried to remember who had gone by that name. _Did_ she like someone named Oriba?

"Ori - ugh, no - _Oli_... I'm sorry, English is hard for me to pronounce."

_I liked someone whose name was English?_

"SeeU," Luka explained, "SeeWoo was shifting through your old letters, and you talked about a boy named Oriba in one of your more recent letters. It... I know you were writing in Korean, but I asked about it - sorry about that - and he translated bits and pieces of it to me. Um... I'm bad at Korean too, but here it goes - Ollibeo?"

Immediately SeeU's mind snapped back to her senior year, where she had been doing social service at a hospital, and a British man named Oliver had come and hurt his eye from a car accident while on a trip to visit some friends living in Korea.

"Ye-es," she said slowly.

"Well, apparently you said something about a fetish with anyone with a name of Oliver, so would you like to take a look at a request on Craigslist?"

* * *

"What do you think?"

"Well, it _seems_ like him... and the description _does_ seem like me... But there are a million people named Oliver in the world."

"I know you'd say that. But still, he gave his Twitter account. When you get back to South Korea, you can go check him up. Oh - and can you give me your Twitter account? I want to stay in touch."

"Okay!"

* * *

Looking up at the huge airport looming before her, SeeU was once again awash with a wave of something she couldn't feel. On the taxi ride, she'd been numb, although a growing anticipation had mounted inside her, built to a fiery adrenaline. And here... was it excitement that she was going back to South Korea, back to her friends and family (and another birthday party?), or was it sadness that she was leaving her brother?

SeeU decided not to think about it. The cold air nipped at her face. Her hands were stiff with cold already. SeeWoo climbed out with SeeU, insisting on taking out the suitcase for her. Then he chaperoned SeeU until they were inside the airport and SeeWoo wasn't allowed to go on further.

He hugged his sister (there had been a lot of hugging lately), and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll see you on Skype, SeeU," SeeWoo whispered into her hair.

SeeU's throat was choked up, so she couldn't speak a reply. She only pulled apart, took a good look at SeeWoo's face, and swallowed and nodded. "I... I'll see you too, SeeWoo. Remember to keep in touch."

"I will!"

And then SeeU turned away and ran, because she couldn't hold out any longer without crying. SeeWoo waved after her, calling goodbye, and SeeU replied before she went through the metal detectors and other machinery.

* * *

The plane. It had taken off, cutting gracefully through the sky. SeeU watched, watched the plane ascend over Tokyo, Japan, into the air.

She was going.

Her heart seized, and had a strange spasm, a tightening that she couldn't exactly described. It released a lot of feelings, too, feelings she couldn't put in words either.

With a slow sigh, SeeU settled back in her seat. She would try to sort out the feelings later; she would put away the freshness of nostalgia for now and get to it, too, later.

_China, South Korea, here I come..._

* * *

**SeeU's feelings here are actually based off of my own. I didn't feel very emotional while still in the Shanghai-Pudong airport, but I was when we were about to land. I simply didn't want to part from China when I was leaving.**

**Listening to _At Dawn They Slept_ by Jay Bocook. Moved to tears (almost). Someday our Band is going to play that (I hope). Now I have to listen to _La Belle et le Capitaine_ and _Belle_ both by Frank Ticheli because we'll _acutally_ be playing that, not in my hopes. T_T Not that I mind; both movements of the Cajun Folk Songs are wonderful! I'm only reviewing how the music should sound, and comparing to how we sound.  
**

**... I need some clarification. Does "kamsa-hamnida" refer only to "thank you" or does it mean "thank you for class"? At taekwondo, the grandmaster was asking the little kids who were in white belt what "kamsa-hamnida" meant, and they were all like, "Thank you for class~!" compared to, when he asked us, we said (well I said) that it meant "thank you." But now I'm confused, because he made no motion to correct the little kids _or_ us. :\Oh- and- "saranghae" means "I love you"?  
**

**Thanks to the following reviewers: Katize Luka, ownitlikeaboss, Ten-Faced, and Troubled Windchimes. You are all lovely~! Thanks to those who read and/or reviewed this chapter too.  
(... what? I told you that it wasn't going to end at ch14.)**

**~Unyielding Wish**


	16. XVI: The Flight Back to China

_XVI: The Flight Back to China_

It was snowing lightly when the plane landed, not bad enough weather for the plane to stall and deactivate. SeeU was a mix of feelings now, threatening to burst. But the feelings weren't exactly bad.

Beijing, China was beautiful at this time of the year.

SeeU's luggage was carry-on, so she did have to tow it around wherever she went, but she was fine about that.

Briefly, she wondered whether Teto the waitress would still be serving in the same place she had gone to when she first came to China. No longer when she thought that, another thought crowded it out - _Let's go find her!_

Naturally, SeeU had no idea where Teto was, just that the place she worked in had a neon pink-and-orange sign. And avocado smoothies, of course.

Just then, an airport worker walked into sight. Relieved, SeeU waved her over, and asked, "What restaurants are there that have a pink-and-orange sign here in the airport?" When the airport official gave her a weird look, SeeU realized that - _again_ - she was speaking in something other than Mandarin Chinese. She repeated the question in said language.

"There's one just ahead," the airport official said, pointing ahead.

SeeU thanked her, expressing her gratitude in multiple languages, before hurrying off.

_Aha!_

The sign was slightly different from SeeU's memory. Maybe it was just her imagination that had created new features, or it was that she didn't take in everything at first glance.

SeeU boldly walked in and was about to ask for Teto before remembering that Teto worked the night shift and this was daytime. Even if this was the right place, Teto wouldn't be there. She wasn't annoyed at the thought, just surprised at herself for not recalling that sooner. Nonetheless, she might as well get a smoothie while she waited for Korean Air to land.

There was a blonde waitress who had a ponytail on the side of her head, texting furiously on her phone. When SeeU entered, she raised her liquid golden eyes and pasted a fake smile on her face, leading SeeU to a seat.

"Yes?" she questioned, not without a grumpy look as she slipped the phone into her apron pocket and pulled out a notepad and a pen. Her tag read "Nalu". The gears of SeeU's brain turned for a few seconds, before translating the name to "Neru".

"Hi," SeeU said. "Would you by any chance have a mango smoothie?"

Neru raised her eyebrows. "That, yes. Anything else? Just a mango smoothie?"

"Do you know someone who's named Teto that works here?"

Neru's eyebrows now drew together. "You know Teto?" She frowned and squinted at SeeU. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked suspiciously. "Do I know you? 'Cause you sound familiar."

"I don't know you either." Did she?

"Nah." Neru shrugged. "Okay then, mango smoothie coming up." After she disappeared into the kitchen, a few bangs and curses and then the sound of whirring told an amused SeeU that she was making the smoothie not without some trouble.

After a while, she returned with the smoothie, and just like Teto, she sat across from SeeU.

"So what brings you here?" asked Neru.

"Visiting my brother. He's learning to be an architect," SeeU replied lightly, sipping her smoothie. If something can be bitter and sweet at the same time, that was Neru's mango smoothie. It tasted slightly different from Teto's. It wasn't bad, though, now that SeeU could enjoy it wholly and not let her pneumonia get in the way.

Neru nodded to the smoothie SeeU was slurping. "Easy there, girl. You'll choke sooner or later." Turning back to SeeU, she inquired, "So he studies to be an architect in...?"

"Japan."

"Ah, so you're going to Japan?"

"Actually," a faint smile quirked at SeeU's mouth, "actually, I'm coming back from visiting my brother. I'm going back to South Korea."

"No sightseeing around here?"

"I'd love to, but there really isn't any time."

"I'd understand that," Neru said, sounding like she put genuine feeling in that. "I'm a stewardess for Air China, and when I want to take a break, here is where I go. All those trips around the world - America, Greece, Vietnam... There are many places to go and see, but I have only a little time to prepare for my next flight."

"Air China flies to Greece?" SeeU asked.

Neru snorted. "Where else do you think it flies to?"

"Oh," said SeeU in a small voice.

"So." Neru leaned back in the seat. "That's all?"

By now SeeU had miraculously finished her drink. She didn't know how. After her sickness, she'd gotten a huge appetite.

"I'll have to go now," she said. "Thank you."

* * *

Since there was free WiFi here, SeeU opened her phone and connected to Twitter. The first thing she saw was a tweet from Luka.

_ /seeu_theepiccat_*****

_I hope I didn't get this wrong! But most of it is in Korean, and I see a lot of tweets from you to who is apparently SeeWoo, so I hope this is the right ..._Expand Post

SeeU clicked "Expand" and continued on reading.

… _place. So … hi, SeeU! I don't know when you're going to see this, but just remember, Luka loves you! We'll be tweeting back and forth, right? I sure hope so~! Tell your friends and SeeWoo's friends that he's engaged! I would love their expressions. Don't worry, SeeWoo is looking over my shoulder as I type this, so it's not like SeeWoo will get mad at you or anything …_

_Well, he just slapped me. Playfully, though. Seeya~_

SeeU didn't know how to respond.

Well, she did, but she didn't know how to put it into words. So she composed a short tweet and sent it back to Luka.

_ /luka_megurine_******

_Haha no you didn't get it wrong. So we will be tweeting back and forth? :)  
_

_And I will, as soon as I get back to South Korea~! I can just imagine some of their faces already! :D _

_Oh, and do you happen to..._

The call for SeeU's flight cackled over the loudspeakers just then, interrupting her tweet. Quickly SeeU finished her sentence and sent it, and slipped the phone back into her pocket. She fumbled for her boarding pass and passport for a few seconds before finding them and getting in line with all the other people.

Having spoken little Korean on her trip, SeeU relaxed and began to use her native tongue again, first talking with the airline attendants. She found herself speaking nonstop to the poor girl who was stamping her passport, and quickly checked herself and shut up. The girl laughed good-naturedly and directed SeeU to the plane.

* * *

***-**** is that an actual Twitter account? lolnope at least I don't think so. All references to any person, living or dead, is not the author's intent and purely coincidental.  
**

****** - **same. I couldn't put the "at" sign, so I just did the slash. Like, _the slash_. Not that slash.****  
**

**Mmh, nothing much to say. There's only one chapter before I complete this D; Look for _Cloven Dream_ (and/or _A Hundred Lavender Tinted Fantasies _and/or _T__he Swans' Feathers_) after this is done. ;D They're my next story babies :3**

**My full gratitude to the following reviewers- Honeycloud of RiverClan, Ten-Faced (uwaaaah Tenny I love you for solving all of my problems with Korean ;u;), Katize Luka (iNSaNiTY is so cool), Troubled Windchimes (yess... and I just figured out that joahae means "I like you," so I'm currently debating whether "hae" means "I" or "you"), knight of nights, Guest x2, BORING (omg constructive criticism. Guest, tell your friend that I love your friend so much ;3;), and Ownitlikeaboss! Thanks to the people who reviewed this chapter too! Now I'm going to see at what temperature salt melts, and I bet I'll be getting my hands smeared with carbon before long. -_-  
**

**~Unyielding Wish**


	17. XVII: Back Home At Last

_XVII: Back Home At Last_

"_We will be landing shortly,"_ said the voice over the intercom. "_You may now use your cell phone.s Thank you for your cooperation, and we hope you enjoyed your flight."_

Again with the feelings. SeeU simply couldn't stop them. They flooded into her, and filled her up with a warm, fuzzy sensation.

She peered out the window. It was nighttime - midnight, to be exact - but Daegu never seemed as beautiful to her as tonight. Its lights twinkled and the cars still roared along the highway. SeeU reflected that day when she was going to the airport in the taxi.

_Ah!_

The nostalgia. It came back in full force.

SeeU didn't try to put it aside now. She slackened her guard and allowed it inside her, letting her heart clench with - how should it be named? - _love_. Love and nostalgia - for even when she was gone only for a short time, nostalgia had the power to preside over her. It was exhilarating. It was beautiful. For a moment, SeeU strayed off the main thought her mind was focused on (_Let me just enjoy this_), and marveled at how the blood ran in her veins, how healthy she was and now weak she was before.

Then with a _clank_, the plane dropped onto the runway.

She reflected on how it was, the plane slowly turning, and then rushing into full speed for takeoff. The landing was different: the "full speed" lasted only for a few moments, and it was mainly a bout of swerving and slowing down.

"_We have now landed. Thank you for riding with Korean Air."_

That was it.

SeeU stood up dutifully, stretching her tired, sore muscles. The sky outside was dark. She went up to the compartments and took out her suitcase, and then, following everybody else in a line, walked to the entrance where she was to exit. She doubted that a taxi would be there to drive all to her village. No, she'd just go to a hotel she happened to know that was near the edge of Daegu and call one of her family members. She patted her pocket for her phone and -

_It's not there._

SeeU sucked in her breath nervously. How could she lose her phone - and _on the plane_, of all the places? Without it, she was totally helpless. She still had her yen to turn into won. She still needed to call someone -

_Calm down, SeeU. Think._

Where had she left her phone?

SeeU pushed back to her seat. _The phone, the phone._ It had to be _somewhere._ Digging deeply, she found that her phone lay beneath her seat. Breathing a sigh of relief, SeeU flipped open the phone to make sure nothing had been altered, that her phone had not been toyed with. After confirming that, she brushed her mussed up hair from her face, let her heartbeat slow down, and squeezed into the line again.

Exiting the plane, SeeU felt the rush of feelings come at her again. Just a bit annoyed this time, she pushed them away and headed to the luggage claim section. She really didn't need to, as her suitcase - the carry-on - was right there, but she did need to cross the luggage claim section to get to the security checkpoint and whatnot.

She managed to keep calm and stoic while she took off her shoes, put the bag into those battered gray bins, and came out on the other side with the people waving metal detectors all over her as if they were groping her.

And then she was outside.

_How can I ever say...?_

SeeU threw her head back and gazed at the sky for a few moments before looking straight ahead again. All those people, holding their signs... She combed the crowd just for fun. Of course, it'd be unlikely that her family would come here to do _anything_, especially in the midnight, but -

_Oh. My. God._

"Mother?" SeeU whispered, astounded. It was her! It _had_ to be her.

Mother's shoulder-length blonde hair, cut childishly and yet seemed to accent on her appearance as a woman. Her sparkling, cheerful blue eyes. Her porcelain skin was still smooth and soft, although some wrinkles surfaced as laughter creases. Mother looked like she needed some sleep, but her smile was seemed to say that it was worth it.

And then... wasn't that Father next to her? Father, with the blonde hair and blue eyes as well, laughing and waving. He looked slightly better. Standing next to him, it was...

_Gumi!_

Not just Gumi, though.

_Yukari!_ Her other friend.

SeeU wasn't sure what had come out of her mouth at the moment; it sounded like a cross between "thank you so much" and "oh my gosh," but all that she knew was that she was in her mother's arms before long.

Then she reflected on all that happened in her trip, and surprisingly, all those feelings seem to pour out of her. And so SeeU did only one thing that was natural to her at the moment. She cried.

Mother patted her gently, hugging her. Gumi anxiously asked SeeU what was wrong, as did Yukari, who rubbed SeeU's back as well. But SeeU could find no answer. It was just... _there_... in front of them... and somehow, all of them understood after a while without SeeU telling what to think. By this time, SeeU's crying had ceased, and taking a few shuddering gulps, she smiled tearfully at her family.

"I'll have a lot to catch up on, don't I?"

Gumi chortled, and the rest of the company burst into laughter too. "You have no idea!" she exclaimed, coming over to take SeeU's hand.

* * *

"Is it possible to miss Japan - and China, although I've only been in it briefly - so much, even though I just came back?" SeeU mused to herself a week later, laying idly on her bed.

The birthday party was great. SeeU was fluent in French now (kind of), and was moving on to English, although Oliver had already taught her some phrases back in her senior year of high school.

Speaking of Oliver...

SeeU flipped her phone open again.

_/seeu_theepiccat_

_Lol! Personally, I think she's out of her mind! But… _Expand Post

_-/-_

_But seriously? SeeU, I really do think you should spare this Oriba a chance. He *might* be the one you're looking for. Besides, your description of him is quite accurate. I can give you the Craiglist link if you want._

_xx Love, xx_

_Luka_

SeeU's finger hovered over the "Retweet" button. But what was there to say? Besides, there _were_ a lot of people in the world named Oliver. This could be a random person.

But then...

All those miracles in the trip. The thousandth paper crane. SeeU still had it with her; they were hanging on the long strings above her bed.

If the gods had healed her when she could have died, maybe they could make another miracle work for her too. So she replied,

_/luka_megurine_

_Oh okay. :)_

_Just this time though..I still think my point is valid. ;O Nonetheless, give me the link and I'll take a look! _

_...I haven't been able to get a hold of a lot of SeeWoo's friends as they're all off in college too. BUT- I -have- told my friends, and they didn't really believe me._

_Well they did think it was funny ;)...so I may show them that I'm being right ;D Speaking of...How is it over there with you and SeeWoo? =3=_

_SEEU_

Two minutes later, there was an enthusiastic reply.

_/seeu_theepiccat_

_Oh … ! Haha. I still think that… _Expand Post

-/-

_I still think that you should. Who knows, maybe it *will* be! :D_

_Haha. Teeheee. Get them and I'll get a picture of us two together with our engagement rings. XDD Bet that'll shut them up. And I don't mind~_

_Giving ya the link right now!_

_xx Love, xx_

_Luka_

Without hesitation, SeeU's finger found the "view" button for the website, and to her surprise, the description did fit her.

More than it should.

There was things about a nurse from high school who was now eighteen - SeeU's age - doing public service. Check. The person writing this had injured his right eye in a car accident. Check. Actually, the person writing had even included vague things like SeeU's height.

And he had enclosed his Twitter.

Interesting. Very interesting.

For only a moment, SeeU mulled over what she should do, before opening the Twitter tab once again and typing out a tweet to this Oliver in her best English.

_ olivertheolive_*****

_Hi! :)_

_I think I am the girl you're looking for on Craigslist. I'm not sure but it's close as close could get. _

_If I'm get this right, you are Oliver Hibiki, who had ended up in ER due to a serious accident. You fractured both of your hips and your right arm was badly broken. Your right leg was broken in two places as well, and you nearly lost your thumb. I'm sorry if I'm getting too gory. Please let me know, I am only trying to find the right person._

_I am the aforementioned girl, SeeU. I had done public service. I WAS seventeen at the time; I'm eighteen now, and in college. My height is that of the one you mentioned._

_Thank you for reading my tweet._

_SEEU_

Within an hour, Oliver had replied.

_/seeu_theepiccat_

_SeeU! :) I think we have a lot of catching-up to do, not to mention making sure we're really who we think we are. For starters..._Expand Post

So, maybe it was true.

The gods had granted more than just one wish of getting well. They had granted a second wish, too - the wish for someone so she would never feel lonely.

SeeU smiled. Life was beginning to taste sweet.

* * *

** E**~**P**~**I**~**L**~**O**~**G**~**U**~**E**

_/seeu_theepiccat_

_Internet dating? Haha, you had me on that one._

_SeeWoo and I are coming along fine~! I'm glad you asked._

_So you and Oliver know for sure that you are the one they are looking for? Aww! How sweet! If you don't mind, I'll daydream about it. this fits into a nice story. LOL_

_I really have to go now. SeeWoo is calling insistently, Lol. But don't worry; I will get back to you!_

_You and Oliver HAVE to get together soon and meet each other again! I just … YOU HAVE TO!_

_PS Glad to know you're not really "dating" and have vidchats with each other on Skype. Lol. A sister-in-law-to-be has to be protective sometimes too. Speaking of that, SeeWoo has been pretty protective of you, really hoping that you've found your true partner and that Oliver won't dump you._

_But I, like you, think he's too sweet for that to happen. ;D I'll be watching you two!_

_xx Love, xx_

_Luka_

-/-

_/luka_megurine_

_I speak no lies. 8D_

_SEEU_

* * *

**Final chapter.**

**UWAAAHHHH I LOVE YOU ALL! ;u; Thank you thank you thank you so much for those who persisted in reading through the entire (slightly monotonous) story! _*FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO VIEW CLOVEN DREAM, THE STORYID IS _9063035.**

**I won't continue because it will make me too sad. OAO I began this in November, after all, and the trip to-...**

**Kay I'll shut up now. Thanks again to all those that read the chapters~ I'll see if I can hit 100+ reviews with this chapter ^w^ And, final thank-you for those who read and reviewed!_Thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter~ _Troubled Windchimes, Ten-Faced, Katize Luka, knight of nights, guests friend (_I'll take heed to what you say, promise! oAo)_, and ownitlikeaboss_~!_  
**

**~Unyielding Wish**


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